Hope For Today "Forgiveness"

Nothing takes more sensitivity and care than dealing with people with whom we have had painful experiences.  It doesn’t matter if it’s close family members or acquaintances, whether the injury happened a decade ago or ten minutes ago, we need to take great care and walk with humility as we work towards reconciliation. That’s the wisdom we are given in Step 9.

Each day is a new opportunity to respond to God’s call to live in humility, desire reconciliation in relationships, walk in forgiveness and focus on cleaning our side of the street. Honesty, balance, and realism are essential tools to keep at hand when we seek the way of peace in all our relationships.  At some point we will all need to make amends to someone and we need to do so with grace and kindness.  This is the invitation of Step 9. We made direct amends to such people, wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

God’s heart is for us to enjoy loving and caring relationships with others.  We have much to learn in this area.  For a long time we’ve blamed others for the way they treated us.  However, we have not been mindful of how our behaviour harmed others.  Transformation in our lives only comes when our words and actions conform to the principles contained in God's word. Step Eight: We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Little by little as we walk with God and work at applying new spiritual principles to our journey, we gain new information about ourselves and how we relate to other people. As we prayerfully review our lives with God, He will reveal where we have caused harm, where we might owe someone some form of amends, and teach us how we can live in new ways in relationship with others. This is the principle behind Step 8: We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Sounds scary and intimidating to us but here’s the good news.  God already knows it all.  We will not uncover and admit anything that is a surprise to Him.  God has already forgiven us and simply wants all the infection and pain to be revealed so we can live free from it and not have to live under the accusation and condemnation of the evil one any longer.

We’re looking at Step 3 of the 12 Steps:  We made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God as we understood Him. What does that look like in practical way?

While it may be a challenge, it is true that God will help us when we choose to stop the cycle of insults with kindness and God promises that we will be blessed.

Whenever we become conscious of our failures and the harms we have caused others, whether that’s through an inventory of our character defects or just the to and fro of daily life, then a well of deep sorrow may overwhelm us. The only question to ask ourselves that really matters in that moment is, “Am I saddened enough by the painful mess I am in to be willing to come before God and admit that I am powerlessness over my self-willed ways?”

God is giving us another chance today to humbly acknowledge our shortcomings and ask Him to remove them. I’m grateful to live today in the care of God, the God of another chance, aren’t you?

God wants us to live free and with dignity even though He knows that we are flawed human beings who need saving. How do we know that we are rescued from our sin and from the destruction that sin causes?  We receive the forgiveness that God offers to anyone who acknowledges their failures and asks for cleansing.

With full knowledge of our broken past, Jesus looks at us today, asks us to follow Him, and promises to use us in meaningful and satisfying ways if we will do His will.  His resurrection power in us is more than enough to make us successful in the venture.

The resurrection of Jesus proves that the power of God’s love is stronger than all of evil so anything challenging that happens in our lives is something we can bring to God and expect His power to make changes in us – not just in our bodies but in our souls and spirits as well.