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Daily
Devotion For Week of March
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Good Morning!
Welcome to Monday, March
1
“And
forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
Luke 11:4
John
D. Rockefeller was one of the great industrialists of the 20th
century. In a recent biography, I learned that his children initiated an
end of the day family ritual. Inspired by a Sunday School lesson on
forgiveness, each night the siblings before bed would ask, “Do you forgive
me for all I have done to you today?” By the time they fell asleep, the
air had been cleared and all the day’s anger that had arisen was
erased.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could hold such an end of the day
prayer in our adult hearts? We do pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors,” but I think what we often mean when we pray that is
“forgive us our debts, as we wish we could forgive our debtors.”
Forgiveness is difficult! So difficult that perhaps only children
and God find it easy! For forgiveness is not only child-like, it is
certainly very God-like. While true forgiveness may indeed seem nothing
short of divine, we humans are not excused from making our best efforts to
forgive. As a matter of fact, it is a central tenet in every major
religion, as well as a key component in almost every healing discipline.
In
this season of Lent, I am convinced that we Christians can find great
comfort and healing when we open our hearts to forgive, to really forgive.
Forgiveness can heal our very lives.
This
week, let’s work to find ways to heal through the practice of
forgiveness.
Let us
pray:
Lord God, I wish I could let things go and forgive more easily. I long to be free of the animosity and rancor that might be corroding my heart. Help me to make a new beginning of forgiveness, today, and every day. AMEN.
Good Morning!
Welcome to Tuesday, March
2.
“Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been
forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is
forgiven, loves little.” Luke 7:47
We as
Christians are taught a “new commandment:” that we love one another; that
we love our enemy; that we do good to those who hate us. Goodness and
kindness to all, friend and foe alike, are at the center of our faith as
Christian people.
But
another reason to forgive is that forgiving is something good we can do
for ourselves; it is a gift we can give to ourselves. Forgiveness is the
choice that can help us get better, not bitter. While bitterness has us
permanently stuck in our anger and hurt and resentment, forgiveness
liberates us and makes us better.
I try
to make at least an annual retreat to a Benedictine monastery. “Always we
begin again” is a motto of Benedictine monks. It is essential to keep
starting over, to keep “converting,” and especially to keep forgiving
oneself.
Now
this can be difficult for many of us, because who knows our imperfections
as well as we do?! And, some of us may ask, “How can a God who knows the
real me still love me and forgive me?” And yet our faith teaches that we
are empowered to forgive one another only after we first allow God to
overwhelm us with gifts of gracious and merciful love.
What
Jesus says is true for the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee
is true for ourselves as well, “the one to whom little is forgiven, loves
little.”
Let us
pray:
Lord Jesus, remind me yet again that I am completely and unconditionally forgiven. My past is over. This morning I am a new creation, capable of good and grace. AMEN.
Good Morning!
Welcome to Wednesday, March 3.
“And
forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
Luke 11:4
A
wise counselor once told me advice that he gives to his clients. “Use the
same advice that folks in earthquake zones use: Don’t dwell on faults.”
Writer
But
what about people who don’t deserve our forgiveness-or don’t even want it,
or who are so thick-skinned they wouldn’t notice it if we did grant it?!
Writer Lisa Engelhardt offers a down to earth response. “Forgiveness doesn’t come naturally. I
personally believe we can’t get very far without appealing for divine
help, and the single thing that I have found most helpful is prayer. I
pray for myself to be able to forgive, and I pray for the other person
(trying to avoid sentiments like ‘Help her not be such a jerk!’). I try to
shower that person with God’s love, to pray for the best for
her.”
That
is hard work, but it can be our work in the season of Lent, to forgive
others as we have been forgiven.
Let us
pray:
Lord God, you forgive me anew each day in Jesus Christ. As I embrace His love for me, help make my arms wide for others, even those who have hurt me so. AMEN.
Good Morning!
Welcome to Thursday, March 4.
“And
forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
Luke 11:4
Sometimes we have to forgive God.
To
forgive God gets us into that dangerous territory where we first have to
admit our anger at God-at God’s seeming silence, at God’s mysterious
“non-response” to our pleas. It is when our God appears to us more Monster
than Mender, when an innocent child lies near death, when the impact of a
Holocaust or a Haitian/Chilean earthquake hits us-that we are especially
called to work on the ultimate forgiveness, our forgiveness of
God.
But
God is not a “Master who rules from
above,” says theologian Gregory Baum, but a Master “who rules from within-as summons and
vitality in people’s lives. The death that destroys is never the will of
God. On the contrary, God is the never-ending summons to life.”
Forgiveness can heal our lives. Even when it means the scary
process of forgiving God.
Let us
pray:
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be your name, this day, and every day. AMEN.
Good Morning!
Welcome to Friday, March 5.
“Then
Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins
against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus
said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.’”
Matthew 18:21-22
Forgiveness is a process, not an event.
One
of the most humbling realizations I have experienced in ministry is that
in many cases, with forgiveness, you can expect nothing to change! Except
yourself. Forgiveness will not change the facts. But we can change our
interpretation of these facts, with humility. Being humble does not mean
groveling; it means, rather, coming to the truth.
We
forgive by realizing forgiveness is a process. Christ’s mandate to forgive
“seventy-seven times” often means forgiving the same person for the same
offense that many times! For many of us, this process may require the wise
support of a pastor or the wisdom of a therapist. At the very least it
requires that we practice, practice, practice.
We
forgive by letting God do the hard part. Carol Leubering, in The
Forgiving Family writes, “Praying for an enemy sounds like an
easy way out-and it is that if your prayer is really for yourself. But
when you stop praying for the other person’s change of heart-for any kind
of control over that person-and just pray for him or her, it’s not easy at
all. It’s loving-and it will plunge you right into the heart of
God.”
Some
things can only be healed through “divine intervention.” It is crucial to
remember that we only have to be willing to heal; God can help us do the
rest.
“Forgiveness is demanded by the very
nature of and and woman. It is not only divine, it is also human. God
commands it because without it we are less than human, with it we are
more.” (William Menninger, Process)
It is
quite a revelation when we come to understand that the person or thing
that had the power to hurt us doesn’t hold the power to forgive. We do.
The power of human forgiveness is in the hands of the one who has been
injured. And that is all of us.
Let us
pray:
Lord God, I
hand over to you again those who have injured me unjustly. I commend them
into your gracious hands, and wait for You, knowing that I won’t be
disappointed in the waiting. AMEN.