I sat in the church sanctuary Sunday morning after the first service thinking about the conversations that I have had over the past several days. Having a few moments to gather my thoughts one question came to my mind. “To what means do we/can we serve God when we hold on to the sin of unforgiveness in our heart?”
To what means do we/can we think that we can serve God when we hold to the sin of unforgiveness. Yet this is evident in the lives of many who claim the name of Christ. God so often calls us to free ourselves from the sin and bondage of unforgiveness. Yet at the same time we so foolishly run headlong back into it. Mark 11:25-26, "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. (26) But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." The apostle Paul said it this way, II Corinthians 2:10, “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ.” Forgive and it will be forgiven, turn loose, let go and hold on to God. That is the message but the practice so often is grab that grudge and hold on for dear life, no matter who or how often we hurt those around us. The truth is, we cannot fully serve God while we hold on to the sin of unforgiveness which in itself is grounded in the sin of selfishness. God commands us to do so as we see in the following verses where are given the two greatest commandments: Matthew 22:37-40, “Jesus said to him, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) "And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself' (40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
We will all struggle with selfishness, we are born with that mindset but we can overcome it and keep it in check. We have the choice to choose to sin or not to sin. We selfishly choose who we hold things against and whom we do not but it is God who commands us not to do so at all, Luke 6:37, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”
Our church recently started a new series entitled “Live Different,” the first message in the series is a good launching point for those who hold on to the sins of unforgiveness. (To view the message series “Live Different” go to http://www.egreenwood.org/resources/bulletins/ for sermon notes or Pod casts.) In addition, I like the way David says we are to live in Psalm 46:10 where he shares with us what God says, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” To be still means to be quiet, to be selfless and to be relentless, to know that God is God. He will be exalted; He will be glorified if we are still long enough to let Him be. He cannot be God if we hold other in that place. We need to turn them over to God and let God take care of our troubles and trials.
Unforgiven sin places a barrier between us and God, this barrier and soon becomes a god to us, robbing us of joy, and keeping us from the blessings of God.
As believers in Christ, we need to purpose in our hearts to turn that which besets us over to God so that He can be in his rightful place on the throne of our hearts.
To be continued:
No comments:
Post a Comment