Ni hao!
To those of you reading this right now, I just wanted to say thank you. It fills me with so much joy to know there are people reading my blog! It's really encouraging, and it motivates me to write more and more! I know I blog a lot about loving others and forgiving others. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be a very important topic in my life right now! I always find myself learning how to love others more and learning how to forgive others. Today, I just wanted to share a parable and a personal story.
The parable I want to talk about today is Matthew 18:23-35. This parable is about an unforgiving debtor. There was a king who came to realize that one of his debtors owed him an enormous amount of money. He ordered the man, his wife, and his children be sold in order to pay for the debt. The man begged for forgiveness and the king decided to forgive him. The man then ran home to find money to pay off his debts; he found that one of his own servants owed him money, and he forced this servant to pay him back. The servant was not able to pay the man back right away, and although the servant pleaded, the man put him into prison until he could pay it back. When the king heard about this, he was furious. He told the man, "You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?" The king then proceeds to send the man to prison until he is able to pay the debt back.
Jesus then says, "That's what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart."
So, I know that was a big clump of writing to read, but I still believe it's important to understand. I personally have been having an extremely hard time forgiving a friend of mine. Things have been tense between the two of us, and I've been having so many negative feelings towards her. For weeks, I've felt nothing but bitterness towards her, and I am so ashamed of this. I read this parable, and I realized I absolutely had to forgive her. It's hard to forgive her because I've been hurt, but the Lord has forgiven me even though I have sinned over and over and over again. If he can forgive me for all the sins I have done, why can't I forgive her?
I want to show her the grace He has shown me, so I'm going to do my very best to forgive her and treat her with love! If you have any bitterness in your heart towards anybody, I pray that you will be able to learn to forgive this person, no matter how challenging it is.
Thank you so much for reading my blog today! Here's the wonderful song I listened to while writing this blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8I3VO19i2w
- kjoosaurus out!
thanks for sharing and I think it will be hard to forgive people but I believe that God gave us the power/heart to forgive people. He will definetly help you keep praying about it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Yoohwan! It is hard to forgive people at times, and I pray that God will help you forgive anybody you may feel bitter towards as well :)
DeleteWithout even thinking about the other person(we will talk about her below), being bitter first damages our hearts and spirits in a great way. When we hold onto bitterness or grudges, our mind is that much closed and there is no room for the spirit to work in our lives. As His child, we have to receive the spirit of forgiveness ourselves and practice being in that mode at all times so that when someone hurts us, we will be able to feel the other person's pain and reasons why they are the way they are, rather than taking it personally and making it into a grudge. Usually the people who hurt us are themselves in great pain of some sort or other, and for this reason they behave the way they do, because they just don't know any other way. I think God teaches us to have compassion for these people. It's not easy but hey, what is the point of being bitter or holding a grudge? What good does it do to you as an individual, as a friend, as a child of God. When you are bitter towards anything in life, it somehow becomes transparent in other parts of your life and it shows. I truly believe we ourselves must first shake off any bitterness. After all, we have God as our Abba Father who always takes care of us. What more do we need? We get attacked by people around us so that our faith becomes stronger, so that we realize once again how blessed we are that we have been forgiven, and that we are able to forgive others. Forgiving others is not something anyone can do simply because they want to. Spirit of forgiveness is from God and you have it because you are His child, you just need to take it out more often and just use it. By exercising it, your faith will grow even more and you will draw closer to God. This friend who hurt you, just cover her in your prayers. God loves her and He needs someone to let her know that. We are here to do His will which is to love, care and serve people God puts in our paths.
DeleteThink of it as a training process. All sorts of people will come in your way during your walks of life. Each of them will help you to build character, each of them will help you to call out to God and draw even closer to Him, each of them will make you realize how blessed you are because you are His child and you have the spiritual freedom and emotional freedom they do not know about. You have freedom that surpasses human knowledge or understanding.
Mom, you should start your own blog. LOL! :)
Deletenooooo~~~ I need to know that I have an audience. When I write my own blog, I have no idea who's gonna read it and it would feel like talking to a wall. I wouldn't be able to handle the silence... However, there are some issues I would like to write about that may be personal, which I might just starting blogging online. hehehe
Delete*start blogging
Delete