HOW

"And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."

Mark 11:25
King James Version

Many years ago someone hurt me. I shared that recently with one of my friends and then I told my friend that I had forgiven that person for what she did to me. My friend said "I don't know how you can forgive her after what she did to you". I said, "how can God forgive us after what we did to His Son"?

We spat on His beloved Son. We cursed Him, mocked Him, beat Him beyond recognition and yet Jesus willingly walked that long lonely road to Calvary and suffered anguish and pain that you and I will never know. After all that abuse and the excrutiating pain that Jesus suffered because of your sins and my sins, He still asked His Father to forgive us.

How dare you and I ask our Heavenly Father to forgive us if we refuse to forgive those who have hurt us? Someone said "I have a right to be angry with that person". I submit to you on the authority of the Word of God that only Jesus has a right to be angry and not forgive. Jesus never sinned, never did anything wrong and yet He died for our sins and asked His Father to forgive us while still hanging on the cross with the blood flowing down His precious body.

We read in the Bible "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:3-5).

Dave Bolling wrote the beautiful hymn "It Was For Me". The words in this hymn bring tears to my eyes to think that Jesus loves me so much He died for me. "It was for me He cried, for me He died, for me He shed His blood upon the tree. It was for me He came, for me His shame; For me, oh praise His name, it was for me." Yes, it was for your sins and my sins that Jesus died on that cross. What a Saviour, this Jesus of Nazareth! Please join me in praising the "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS". All hail, King Jesus! Worthy is the Lamb of God!

Joanne Lowe
January 29, 2020