Day 1939 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Ephesians 4:32 NIV

My family and I just watched I Can Only Imagine for the second time, and what an amazing movie about an amazing band. MercyMe has been one of my favorites for a very long time. In fact, I'm pretty sure that their Almost There album was one of the first Christian albums I ever bought. But it's just got me thinking about how amazing forgiveness really is. It is undoubtedly one of the biggest gifts that anyone can give another person. And the incredible thing is that we all have the opportunity to give it.

We have all messed up. Hopefully we're all mature and honest enough to agree with that. Every single one of us have said and done things that have hurt other people. We've all left scars. And that's one of those things that really hurts to admit. The person that I am now shudders at the thought of hurting someone else. But we still slip up and do or say things without thinking and continue to leave those painful marks in the lives of those around us.

Thankfully, forgiveness is possible. There's this unmatched freedom and mercy that comes from bring forgiven. It's this ultimate proof of love and compassion. It's this statement that the other person loves us more than to hold our mistakes against us. It's showing us that even though we've really messed up and done some very real damage, that we can work to do better and be better.

That's the point of the Gospel that we're all truly blessed to be able to share. It's growing more and more clear that there's an awful lot of hurting in our world. We're seeing the effects of pain, anger, resentment, and holding grudges. And at times it seems like there may be no way to fix everything that's broken and torn in our world. But we know better. We know that nothing is too far gone. Nothing is ever too broken. Nothing is ever impossible. That's the message of the cross.

Jesus came to this earth to show us the power and mercy of forgiveness. He took that cross up that hill and paid the ultimate price to prove that His love for us is more powerful than our ability to mess things up. And in doing so, He set each and every one of us free from the stinging weight of guilt and regret. He set us free so that we could understand just how big of a gift it is to give someone. We've felt it in our own lives, and now He calls us to share that with the world.

Again, we've all messed up, but holding onto that hurt is like that darkness getting inside and bringing you down that we talked about yesterday. It's this constant stumbling block that keeps us from loving more, caring more, and being the better people that Christ died to give us the chance to be. So we need to let things go. We need to forgive. We need to realize that nobody is ever going to be perfect. Nobody is ever going to get everything right. And even though mistakes happen and they sometimes hurt, they don't have to bring us down.

Forgiveness is one of those gifts that honestly helps everyone involved. It shows the person being forgiven that the hurt party still loves them and wants to move forward toward something better. But it also helps the person who forgives because it gets rid of some of that pain of those horrible memories. It just allows everyone to pick up the pieces and start working to build something even stronger.

Folks, be quick to forgive. Holding anything against anyone only keeps everyone from moving on. After all, it's definitely one of those things that we hope to all get from others ourselves. We hope to be forgiven whenever we do something wrong, so we should extend that same grace to others. That Golden Rule just has this way of continuing to be really valuable and important doesn't it?