FORGIVENESS WITHOUT LIMITS. DATE : 24/12/2014. TEXT : Luke 17:3-4 (KJV) Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. 4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. Luke 17:5 (KJV) And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. JESUS taught about forgiveness .both Luke and Matthew gave the account of it in their various writings. The account Matthew gave was more elaborate than that of Luke . Matthew 18:21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. When peter came to jesus,he asked him how many times he could forgive a brother that sin against him . The number of times he knew it was required to forgive a brother that trespass against him was the customary seven times but he was shocked to discover that he ought to be able to forgive a brother that sinned against him 490 times from sunrise to sunset ! The same standard goes for everyone .You must be able to forgive someone who sinned against you 490 times a day . You can only walk in unforgiveness and be justified after a brother or sister has offended you 490 times in a day ! You can hold malice or revenge After You ve exhausted every opportunity to show mercy . This is not achievable in a day . None can offend you 100 times from sunrise to sunset ,not to talk of 490 times ! What jesus was advocating here was forgiveness without limit! How many times can we forgive someone who sinned against us in a day ? It has to be Forgiveness without limits ! Now God cant asked us to forgive our brother who sinned against us and repent 490 times a day and he wont be able to grant us forgiveness 490 times if we sinned against him and genuinely repent in a day ! God is not a man that will preach something and wont practice it ! he surely practice what he preaches ! When peter and the rest realized how many times they must forgive they said lord increase our faith ! They realized they would need big faith to forgive 490 times ! Peter realized he would need more faith to forgive that much . The level of your faith is at the level of your forgiveness .if you forgive little you have little faith .if you forgive much, you have great faith! It takes great faith to tolerate and forgive much ! It takes big faith to forgive much ! The level of Your faith is not measured by how long you can fast or pray . It is not measured by all the miracles you do ,but by how much you forgive ! How much do you really forgive ? The answer You give to this is the measure of your faith ! Merry Xmas .
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 13:37:20 +0000