By Lisa Wilmore
Scripture to Ponder: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Col. 3:12-14).
Dear Hearts,
Forgiveness is perhaps one of the most complicated things that believers find hard to do. People tend to hold on to things that happened many years ago and readily believe that they have moved past the hurt or disappointment; but discover later in life that they still have an issue with that individual.
In our aforementioned Text, Paul wrote a letter to the Church of Colossae in reference to principles of Christian living. He emphasized what Christians should do now that they have been risen with Christ. They must set their hearts and minds on heavenly things and not earthly things (3:2). He penned, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God… (3:3-4). So, now that Christ died and we were crucified with Him, our contrary nature died with Him. Therefore, since Christ lives within us, we have the ability and power to deny the things of the world as He did. In essence, He gives us the capability to forgive as He forgave. Therefore, we must activate the gift he has given us and not only be compassionate, kind, and humble, but forgiving, also.
As a point of reference, I love watching Christian movies. One movie that I watched recently dealt with a father whose son died in a car accident. Of course, the accident was caused by a reckless driver who had his own issues. The father, who was a believer, had major issues with the reckless driver and could not find it in his heart to forgive him. The storyline continued with the father finding out that his son, who died, shot a young lady which caused her walking impairment. Although, she and her husband forgave him and helped him to become a better person. When the father discovered this, it forced him to look in the mirror with no other choice than to forgive the reckless driver.
Interestingly, the story is the picture of God’s love for us. We were so deep in sin but as the psalmist chants, “He looked beyond our faults and saw our needs”. He forgave us! It did not matter the sin or the number of times we sinned. He cleansed us through the blood of Jesus and gave us another chance. So, Paul admonishes us to do the same. “As God’s chosen people we must clothe ourselves with forgiveness.”
Jesus Saves!
