Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
Christians talk a lot about serving and giving and releasing rights and putting down self—and we should. It's part of the whole Christian package. It's expected, to an extent. But isn't it possible to go overboard on stuff like this?
It is not "too late"...you are not "too old to change"...and your situation is not "too much to overcome." Truth be told, it is never too late to start doing what is right.
When God holds out hope, when God makes promises, when God says, "It can be done," there are no exceptions. With each new dawn, there is delivered to your door a fresh, new package called "today."
"I forget what is behind" is a statement that assures us Paul was not the type to live in the past. He says, in effect, "I disregard my own accomplishments as well as others' offences against me. I refuse to dwell on that." This requires humility.
Vulnerability means being willing to express personal needs, admitting one's limitations or failures, having a teachable spirit, and especially being reluctant to appear the expert, the answer person, the final voice of authority.
Yesterday, we talked about what it means to "forget" when other people do bad deeds to us. Today, I want to address forgetting when we do good deeds to others.
The way God has made us with that internal filing system we call "memory"—it is doubtful we can fully forget even the things we want to forget.
Refusing to forgive and forget leads to other tragedies, like monuments of spite. How many churches split (often over nitpicking issues), then spin off in another direction, fractured, splintered, and blindly opinionated?
There is enough in the past few days' worth of devotionals to keep us thinking (and forgiving) for weeks. But there are a couple of specific applications that need to be considered.
We are to forgive as we have been forgiven! Release the poison of all that bitterness...let it gush out before God, and declare the sincere desire to be free.
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