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d) The Inevitable Seeking of Reconciliation (Matthew 6:14-15)
MATTHEW 6:14-15
14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Mark 11:25)
How shameful that Jesus has to tell us frequently that forgiving love alone is a fulfillment of the Law. If we deliberately abandon God’s love, the Almighty will become a stranger to us, and if we harden our hearts against Him, we will fall into judgment.
Please examine yourself, dear friend. Did God renew you and fill you with His mercy? And how does this renewal look?
Our Father in heaven has called you to spread the heavenly peace around you, for the children of God are the peacemakers. Is there any man or woman whom you hate? This will be the most important person in your life, for God has sent him to test you and to examine your heart, whether rage and revenge are still in you. The mighty Spirit seeks to crush your hate, overcome your grudge and teach you tolerance, forgiveness, caution, patience and meekness that you may accept this hard man, truly love him, rejoice whenever you meet him, invite him into your house and make him feel at home. God’s forgiveness is brought to every man, and our forgiveness for one another is the basis of the New Covenant. Wherever this condition is not realized, there will be no dwelling of the kingdom of God. The love for the enemy is the fruit of your faith. In your lack of forgiveness you contradict the work of the Holy Spirit in you and around you. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” Carry out this merciful commandment, and you become or remain a son or daughter of God and a brother or sister of Christ.
But if you keep on hardening your heart, taking revenge, angering your enemy and treating him with contempt, rudeness and harshness, you are at enmity with God and you will be denying Christ once more. All your prayers and godliness will then appear as hypocrisy and lying.
When Paul was put into prison together with his friend Silas, they sang hymns to God, though their feet were fastened in the stocks so that blood ran out of them. Yet, they loved their beaters and the keeper of the prison and prayed for them. The earth quaked, the hearts changed, and the keeper of the prison repented. When Stephen was stoned, he prayed for his killers, for all the children of God follow the cry of the crucified, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
God’s love forgave us all our sins. Whoever corresponds with it and opens his heart to enemies, sees the heaven open, as Stephen did, and experiences the power of God at work just like Paul and Silas whose patient endurance lead many people to conversion and recognize that God is the Father. Examine yourself. Do you allow the Spirit of God to dwell and act in your life?
PRAYER: O Father, we repent with the regret of our hearts and with a true resolution. Please forgive us our pride and teach us Your holiness, forgiveness and the meekness of Your Son. Help us to forgive every person for every offense as You have forgiven us, since you have showered us with kindness, mercy and goodness. Change our hatred in us with Your love and mercy.
QUESTION:
- What is imperative for our continuance in fellowship with our Father in heaven?