Very near the end of his full and productive life, Paul wrote: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). What a grand epitaph! He seized every day by the throat. He relentlessly pursued life.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Christian Living
Humility
“I forget what is behind” is a statement that assures us Paul was not the type to live in the past. He says, in effect, “I disregard my own accomplishments as well as others’ offenses against me. I refuse to dwell on that.” This requires humility. This becomes especially clear when you examine Paul’s past.
Read MoreVulnerability
Remember these words from yesterday? “I have not arrived . . . I forget what is behind . . . I move on to what is ahead.” Over the next few days, I want to examine each part of this statement from the pen of the apostle Paul. The first part offers an important characteristic for us as believers: vulnerability.
Read MoreForgetting Your Own Good Deeds
Yesterday, we talked about what it means to “forget” when other people do bad deeds to us. Today, I want to address forgetting when we do good deeds to others. In other words, once our own good deeds are done, they’re done. Forget them. No need to drop little hints on how thoughtful we were. Just as we refuse to keep score of how people have offended us, we don’t keep score of all we’ve done for them.
Read MoreCan We Really Ever Forget?
A question flashes through my head as I write these words: can our minds actually allow us to forget? The way God has made us with that internal filing system we call “memory”—it is doubtful we can fully forget even the things we want to forget.
Read MoreForgiving and Forgetting
“I’ll forgive . . . but I’ll never forget.” We say and hear that so much that it’s easy to shrug it off as “only natural.” That’s the problem! It is the most natural response we can expect. Not supernatural. It also can result in tragic consequences.
Read MoreHow to Make Forgiveness Happen
There is enough in the past few days’ worth of devotionals to keep us thinking (and forgiving) for weeks. But there are a couple of specific applications that need to be considered. First, focus fully on God’s forgiveness of you. Don’t hurry through this. Think of how vast, how extensive His mercy has been extended toward you, like David did when he wrote “Hymn 103.”
Read MoreWhen You Are the Offended, Part 2
Yesterday we read Jesus’s parable of the king who forgave his servant—who then refused to forgive a fellow-servant. (You may want to read it again from Matthew 18:23–35.) From this parable, we learned that to refuse to forgive is hypocritical.
Read MoreWhen You Are the Offender, Part 1
Matthew 5:23–24 describes in a nutshell the correct response and procedure to follow when we have been in the wrong and have offended someone. “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering . . .
Read MoreA Reason to Forgive
When wrong has been done against another person, there are only two possibilities of blame. But whether we are responsible for the offense or we are the recipients of it, the first move is always ours. The true servant doesn’t keep score.
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