Forgive our sins, as
we forgive everyone who has done wrong to us.
And keep us from being tempted. –
Luke 11:4
This past week we had a beautiful opportunity to put this
verse into practice. Last Monday, we
were able to visit a local Goodwill and learn about their many community
development projects beyond simply their thrift store. Unfortunately there were some
miscommunications about the rules and we did not conduct ourselves in a way
that best represents our priorities, Mercy Street, or most importantly, the
Lord. While this was not an experience to
celebrate, we can most certainly praise God for teaching us a valuable lesson
and growing our character through it all.
Forgive our sins…
It was important that we asked for forgiveness for the areas
where we had fallen short. For several
of the interns, this was a new skill to develop. It takes a bold combination of humility and
courage to walk up to someone and admit your faults, but this morning, all of
the interns dressed up, headed over to Goodwill, and handed Ms. Georgette
Caldwell hand-written letters of apology, as well as their salaries from Monday
as a token of their sincerity.
…as we forgive
everyone who has done wrong to us.
As we considered how much God loves us and how much He has
already forgiven us, we knew it was important to offer forgiveness to
Goodwill. Before heading over, we even
got to discuss the idea of forgiving those who aren’t asking for forgiveness or
who aren’t repentant. How often do we
ignore our own sin, yet through His work on the cross, Jesus has even forgiven
us of the sins we’re unaware we committed.
And keep us from being
tempted.
This last part of the verse is often separated from the part
about forgiveness, but I think it shows an important piece of the repentance
process. “May I not be drawn back into my sin.” We praise God for forgiving us
of the sins we have yet to commit, but I praise Him even more that He gives us
the strength and power to not sin as we used to. If we ask for forgiveness, but do nothing to
change our behavior, it doesn’t appear as though we are truly repentant. Today when we apologized to Goodwill, we also
made a commitment to change our ways and act more respectfully in the future.
Thanks be to God for making a way for us to be reconciled to
Him and reconciled to our fellow brothers and sisters. Praise His Name for healing our relationship
with Goodwill and bringing us back together.
We thank Him for teaching us about repentance and forgiveness, lessons
that are not easy to learn and therefore often skipped over. We are also grateful this truth found in
Psalm 103:8-12:
The
Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He
will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he
does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For
as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear
him;
as
far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions
from us.
