And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
— Mark 11:25 (NKJ)
This verse is typically thought to mean that if I withhold forgiveness from someone then the Father will withhold forgiveness from me but that is not the intent of this verse. Think about this . . .
If you don’t have something, then you can’t give it away. So, if you don’t have a thousand dollars, you can’t give away a thousand dollars, if you don’t have a car then you can’t give away a car. If you don’t have a puppy then you can’t give away a puppy. Now on the flip side, if you have a thousand dollars, you can give away a thousand dollars, if you have a car, you can certainly give away a car and if you have a puppy then, of course, you can give away a puppy. It is obvious, you can only give what you have to give.
Let’s take this concept and apply it to this verse . . . If you don’t have (receive forgiveness) then you can’t give it away. If I don’t receive the forgiveness of the Father and I withhold receiving His forgiveness, then I have no forgiveness to give. I have to truly receive forgiveness in order to have forgiveness to give away. This is true of other things too. If I don’t receive love, then I can’t truly give love, or mercy or grace or kindness. I must have it to give it away.
How often do we say that we have been forgiven but we hold something against ourselves? We feel guilt, shame or condemnation. It hangs around because we have not really received the fulness of being forgiven.
The topic for this month is forgiveness. There are so many facets to receiving and giving forgiveness. We will look at some of these each week. The wallpaper this month is a reminder that we are truly forgiven and the verse of emphasis is that our sins are thrown into the sea of forgetfulness to be remembered no more, they are dropped and forgotten. Yet, sometimes we go to the sea of forgetfulness and begin fishing for our wrongs and dredge them back up. That is a no fishing zone. Our sins are washed away, to be remembered no more. We are forgiven.
Receive the fullness of the Father’s love and forgiveness. When you fully have it, and only then, can you give it to others.
“The Sea of Forgetfulness is a no fishing zone“
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You Are Transformed