Today’s
scripture:
“For if you
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But
if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
Relationships
are so very important to God. You can see it throughout scripture. Even in the
trinity is a relationship. Husband and wife, brothers and sisters, believers
and other believers, father and son, and ultimately Jesus and us. It’s all over
the bible and God holds it dear to His heart. He hates divorce (Malachi 2:16),
and He hates the separation that sin brings between us and Himself. But He
loves reconciliation!
Today we are looking into the fourth topic on the Sermon on the Mount
that Jesus is teaching, which is “Reconciliation”. In Matthew 5:23-26 God is concerned about us
making things right in our relationship with one another. God says before we
even think of coming and offering our gifts to Him, STOP! Don’t go any further.
Turn around and make a b-line straight to the one that has something against you
and be reconciled. How much more important would it be if we were the ones
holding a grudge.
He
goes on to say in v.25 do it quickly
and do it with urgency! If you delay, you could run the risk of suffering some
severe consequences v.26.
In
this passage, what would be considered our gifts that we offer to God? Our
gifts to Him is anything we do to serve Him. Rather it be in ministry, a church
service, tithing of money, doing mercy for someone in need, parenting,
fathering, mothering, working to support our family,…etc. In other words, when
we were born again, we gave our LIFE to God! Our whole life to Him! That means
whatever we do, we do unto the Lord!
So,
in all reality, since our whole life and everything we do is a gift to Him, we
should always be in check that our relationships are pure. Granted, its
impossible to ALWAYS be in check and not take another step until we reconcile
our differences, but the point is, we need to have the heart of mercy not of
bitterness. Have a heart of peace and not strife. Have a heart of thankfulness
and not greed. And when we do recognize we have differences to go quickly to
reconcile so there is nothing between you and the Lord.
I
feel the Lord pressing on me to use the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis
4:1-9. Cain offered to the Lord fruit from his labor of working in the field
and Abel offered his first born of his flock of sheep. Abel’s gift to God was
accepted but Cain’s gift was not. Kind of interesting huh? But, notice verse 7,
God said to Cain “if you do well, will you
not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its
desire is for you, but you have to rule over it.” God is indicating here
that Cain’s heart was not right.
Then
what happens next? Cain goes over to his brother Abel and discusses this with
him, then KILLS HIM! Now, I don’t think a sin like that happens over night.
Bitterness and anger towards his brother had to be lingering in his heart for
some time, festering deep within himself. God knew his heart was full of anger.
For whatever reason he was angry, doesn’t really matter or else scripture would
say. The point is Cain did not reconcile with his brother and a life was taken
because of it!
If
we don’t reconcile quickly, we will suffer consequences of our bitterness and
anger. It will grow in us and tear us up and eat us alive until we get angry with
just about anything or anyone and its only a matter of time before we either
give in to God or end up doing something drastic or being miserable until we do
obey.
Reflection:
Our
attitude about reconciliation needs to be bent toward God’s will. He holds this
so important, He would rather you put on hold anything you are doing for Him,
to get right in your relationships. That speaks loudly to me. That tells me
relationships are more important to Him then ministry! Our attitude needs to be
a willingness to stop anything and everything and go straight to our adversary
and at least make an attempt to make it right.
Challenge:
Do
you have anything that you are holding against someone? Is anyone you know of
holding anything against you? Clear your conscience and go to them and be
reconciled. Ask for forgiveness. If you don’t, God will not forgive you! Refer
back to today’s scripture.
-Doug McGowan
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