Forgiveness

Have you ever wondered..

* How you could forgive an enemy?

* What sins are unforgivable?

Read: Genesis 45:4-15 and Matthew 18:21-35

It goes beyond our human nature to forgive the unforgivable. We hold grudges and harbor resentment. We battle and bicker among ourselves. It is God's nature, hwever, to forgive anything and everything. The worst crime ever committed? God can forgive that. Your worst mistakes and harshest moments? God can forgive those, too. Even when you feel that God would never accept you as you are, he invites you to come just as you are, and he forgives you completely.

Joseph's brothers did the unforgivable - they sold their litle brother into slavery. What an awful thing to do! They did not deserve to be forgiven. As readers, we long for a moment of vengeance, when Joseph can get back at them for the years of pain and rejection they caused him. But Joseph held off. He could have gloated, mocked, yelled, or punished. Instead, he embraced them. Tears spilled down his cheeks as he forgive them. As Jesus taught in Matthew 18:35, Joseph manged to forgive his brothers from his heart.

Perhaps you can empathize with Joseph's situation. Maybe you're face-to-face with someone who doesn't deserve to be forgiven. Through Jesus' grace, you can forgive. Only when you are
bathed in God's forgiveness can you extend that same, rich ungradging forgiveness to others.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. -Romans 5:8