Hey Clawson Family!

Song:

Scripture:

Matthew 18:21-22 New Living Translation

21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone[a] who sins against me? Seven times?” 22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven![b]

Devotional:

When we try to walk in forgiveness, we have to realize that we are all looking at life through a filter. All of us see life, but we do not see life the same way. Our experiences change the way we view things. There are 4 lenses in which we view life. 

1. Our Past

Some of us can not get out of the prison of the past. We need to release forgiveness to ourselves. We are terrible to ourselves. We wouldn’t talk to anyone else the way we talk to ourselves. Before we know it, we can not see the bright future that God has for us because we are looking through the prison of the past. 

It is called the past for a reason!  With your future, you are a new creation. The old me is gone because of Jesus, and the new me has a bright future.

1. Pains 

Sometimes, we go through things that traumatize and change us. Pain, if we are not careful, can begin to shape us. We see our life and future through the lens of this pain. Because we are still hurting, or because we are afraid to hurt like that again, it hinders us from forgiving.

1. Problems

Reality is the only time we are going to have a problem-free life is when we get to heaven. Every season we live in comes with problems and potential. New levels, new devils. Bigger vision, bigger opposition. 

The good news is for every problem, there is a solution, and his name is Jesus Christ! King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Solution to your problems. 

This is why David in the Psalms said… Oh, Let us magnify your name…. Whatever you magnify in life will get bigger! Spend more time magnifying the solution than magnifying the problem. 

1. People

There really is no pain quite like people pain. 

People have the potential to be the greatest blessing in our lives, but at the same time, people have the potential to bring the most damage. 

One of the reasons that we have so many problems with people is that we treat our relationships with a scoreboard mentality.

We have this ME vs. THEM scoreboard in our minds. We create tallies against people when they hurt us.  This is dangerous because when we begin to treat relationships with a transactional model, we are likely to do the same with God. 

Religion is treating God like a scoreboard. When we do bad, we owe God, but when we do good, God owes us. 

Forgiveness is not about keeping score; forgiveness is learning to lose count. God is doing a work to get rid of bitterness, hate, and unforgiveness. But Satan will tempt us to get the scoreboard back out even though we have already forgiven and moved on.

Journal: 

In your journal today, write down steps you could take this week to let go and accept God’s forgiveness. 

Training:

Father, thank You for everything You’ve done for us. Thank You that, because of Christ’s sacrifice, we don’t have to dwell on our past or carry around our guilt. Help us to accept the forgiveness You freely offer each of us.

 In Jesus’ name, amen.

Don’t carry around the burden of a scorecard.

Ask God to forgive you and help you to learn to lose count. Then, embrace the freedom He offers.