Forgiveness

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me,

and I forgive him? till seven times?
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

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All of us have made mistakes in our lives. Some of those mistakes have had huge consequences on the life of others.

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I was placed in a situation today and as I saw the whirlwind of chaos, screaming and hurtful words surrounding me, all I could think about was forgiveness. All I could think about was Jesus.

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You see...There is this person...

He once made a huge.. catastrophic mistake.. a wrong turn.. a bad decision.

His loved ones are unfortunately still paying for it.

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As I watched the fight heat up.. my heart suddenly broke for this person. I felt so deeply for him. I hurt for him.

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How many times do we have to make a mistake known to someone?

How many times do we have to remind him of the pain he has caused?

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Yes.. he may have hurt us. Yes.. we may have been disappointed. Yes.. we may still be paying for it.

But it is done. We don't have the ability to go back into the past and erase it. I wish we could. I'm sure he wishes he could.

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I am sure that this person has enough turmoil to deal with within his own heart.

I am sure that he hasn't even forgiven himself yet.

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It reminded me of how, we sometimes sin and turn to Jesus. We know that we are forgiven. That - in his eyes - we are again as white as snow. Nonetheless.. we seem to have a much harder time forgiving ourselves.

We all deal with our own demons from the past. We are hard enough on ourselves.

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I know what it feels like to be truly forgiven.

And I wish with all of my heart that you could feel it too.

I am no better than you.

I chose to follow Jesus' ways..

So, my brother, I love you and I chose to erase the past from my mind and my heart. I forgive you for what you have done... and seventy times seven times more.