Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
"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' offences against me. I refuse to dwell on that." This requires humility.
Vulnerability means being willing to express personal needs, admitting one's limitations or failures, having a teachable spirit, and especially being reluctant to appear the expert, the answer person, the final voice of authority.
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.
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.
Refusing to forgive and forget leads to other tragedies, like monuments of spite. How many churches split (often over nitpicking issues), then spin off in another direction, fractured, splintered, and blindly opinionated?
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.
We are to forgive as we have been forgiven! Release the poison of all that bitterness...let it gush out before God, and declare the sincere desire to be free.
Because we have been the recipients of maximum mercy, who are we to suddenly demand justice from others? The compassion that God demonstrates on our behalf calls for us to do the same toward others.
The important thing for each of us to remember is that you are responsible for you, and I am responsible for me (Romans 12:18). With the right motive, in the right spirit, at the right time, out of obedience to God, we are to humble ourselves and attempt to make things right. God will honour our efforts.
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.
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