As Your Father Is...

Well, we are continuing our series, / / Lord Have Mercy! We started last week by looking at what the bible says about mercy, what it is, and the fact that we get to freely receive it BECAUSE of God’s grace, and the reasons we get God’s grace AND his mercy is because we have a great High Priest, or a mega high priest, who is Jesus Christ, who has mediated for us, is mediating for us, and will continue to mediate for us.

We focused on Hebrews 4:16 which says, / / So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God [with confidence draw near to the throne of grace]. There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Grace & Mercy. When we need it most! All day....every day!

So, let’s recap the importance of this real quick. We’ve looked at / / Grace as being approved of, supported, loved, liked, looked after, accepted, receiving the most outrageously generous treatment, beyond reason, and it has nothing to do with anything I’ve done right or wrong, who my family is, where I come from, my financial status, my race or gender or any other thing.

Grace is the reason mercy is available to us, because Grace is just what God does. He has put no conditions on his love, no conditions on his mercy, except that we believe. The bible says that grace is a gift, and so God is continually giving, but it’s on us to receive. What we receive, or should receive rightfully is what Romans 12:6 says, / / For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wages is really without question: for sin, there is payment. To understand this, just look at the word consequence which means “a result or effect of an action or condition.” So, just like we work, and as a result get paid money, we sin, and as a result we get paid death. And it’s direct deposit.

And I think sometimes we take the word sin and think of it only as an eternal word, we need Jesus to save our souls from an eternal consequence, but as I’ve said many times before, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and what He taught that we read in the word of God, is not only obviously eternal and has spiritual implications, but there is often a very practical, here on earth for your life right now, application to the teaching. This is no different.

Yes, sin has eternal consequences. We are in desperate need of a savior that can make a payment that we can’t. We’ve read Romans 3:23 a few times in the last few weeks, / / …everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

And as Christians we place our eternal hope in the salvation of Jesus Christ, but, the wages of sin being death, in my humble opinion and understanding of scripture and my experience in this life has instant and immediate consequences on a daily basis that we would be incredibly wise to pay attention to.

If the action, or the presence of sin in our lives produces death, and the definition of sin is falling short of God’s glorious standard, then the reality is, in every area where God says, “I want you to do this, because if you do this you’ll be blessed, but if you do this other thing you’ll hurt yourself...” and we CHOOSE to do that other thing, we are going to experience a consequence to the action. Not a punishment for our disobedience, but a consequence because we didn’t listen. And there’s a big difference.

Paul says in Romans, just because we’ve received the grace of God does not mean we should continue on sinning. Why? Because continuing to sin, not only makes grace kind of cheap, it’s like saying, “Thanks but no thanks”, but our eternal redemption in Jesus Christ doesn’t mean running head strong into a brick wall isn’t going to hurt us!

I’ll go back to the illustration of Kaylee and her mac’n’cheese. I can be in the kitchen, cooking on the stove and give her a simple instruction. “Please go wait in the living room until this is ready. Do not touch this pot or this stove, they are hot. BUT, if you wait in the living room and give me a little bit of time, I’ll be able to give you what you want.” If she does not listen, gets up and walks into the kitchen and touches that pot and burns herself it had nothing to do with punishment, but it did have everything to do with consequence.

There is this beauty in the grace of God that as soon as you believe in Jesus, God no longer holds your sin against you. Romans 3:26 says, / / …speaking of Jesus being the sacrifice for our sin, God did this to demonstrate HIS righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

God is just, that means he follows the rules, and they are the rules he made, the covenant he made with Israel said that a sacrifice was necessary to cover the sins of the people, and so to show HIS righteousness, meaning, God doesn’t break his own rules, he sent his only son, so that whoever believed in him, would receive HIS act of righteousness as their own. The ESV says it beautifully, / / …so that he might be just AND the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

He is both just in HIS actions, and the one who has justified us BY HIS actions. Because of HIS just act, following HIS own law, He has the right to declare us clean and righteous.

That is the beauty of Grace, we don’t deserve it, AND it’s the heart of mercy, he freely gives because he has compassion on us and SHOWS it by doing for us what we can’t do ourselves.

Which explains again our working definition of / / Mercy which is the deeply felt desire and moral obligation to show and express sympathy by acting upon the needs, suffering and misfortunes of others through a tender and heartfelt compassion, concern and kindness.

So, last week we looked at God having mercy on us, or giving us his mercy. He is so full of compassion toward us that not only does he empathize with our situation, like Hebrews says, Jesus understands our weaknesses because he too faced the same testings, BUT, he is also moved to do something about it. The greatest part of that being the free gift of eternal life for those who believe.

As we’ve been looking at grace and mercy over these last few weeks I’ve been overwhelmed by the reality of our sin and the power of God’s redemptive grace. Paul says in Romans 3 that all have sinned, we all fall short of God’s glorious standard, and he says in Romans 6 that the wages of that sin, or the consequence of sin, the repercussion of sin is death. So if we use that as the definition of sin, falling short of God’s glorious standard, and we understand that when WE fall short of his standard, what’s that mean? It means we didn’t listen to what he said, we did what we wanted instead, and we are producing death in our lives by our very own actions.

Jesus said in John 10:10 / / The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

The enemy will do whatever he can to get us to sin, to fall short of God’s standard, to convince us there’s a different way. He’s been doing it since the garden. Remember that one? He comes to Adam and Eve and says, “Did God REALLY SAY??? Surely you won’t DIE. God is hiding the truth from you, he knows that when you eat this fruit you’ll be LIKE HIM. Don’t you want to be LIKE GOD?” He convinced them. And he’s trying to do the same thing today with you and me. Did God REALLY say you can’t do that? I mean, what’s grace for anyway if you can’t have a little fun? God’s just trying to put a damper on your style.

What I think we fail to understand, and how this has been used against us, or at least in my life, my experience has been that when I sin I feel shame, what I’m told is that I’m bad, I did something wrong and I should be PUNISHED for it. BUT, if we begin to understand that God is saying this to protect us from the repercussions of sin itself, and not to punish us for our disobedience, it changes everything.

Instead of, Don’t do this or else, it becomes, don’t do this, because it’s going to hurt you, and there is a better way. And Yes, God blesses certain actions, but most of the time it’s not blessing as in gift for action, it’s blessing because of the choice we made. I’m not saying it’s one OR the other, but how true is it that a good choice determines a good result. Call it blessed, or call it a good decision, I call it God’s grace and mercy to stay focused and strong in the face of temptation and weakness.

When I choose to eat right, I am blessed with a healthy body. When I choose to eat the right things I am blessed with my blood sugar being where it’s supposed to be, which in turn determines how my body feels. But, when I choose to eat poorly I suffer the effects of that in my body. Is it blessing and curse, or is it following a standard that leads to life or falling short of that standard that leads to death?

See, the bible says in 1 John 4:18 / / [Gods] love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

That’s why I don’t think God is out to punish us, but protect us! You know that even in the Garden, when God removes Adam & Eve after they eat the fruit that he told them not to, removal from the garden wasn’t punishment, it was protection. Genesis 3:22 says, / / “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden.

Why? Because God’s intention for us is that we live forever FREE from sin…which after sin entered the world, it needed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to remove it for all eternity. And God, in his mercy, removes Adam and Eve from the garden so that they don’t eat the fruit of the tree of life and live forever with their sin.

See, God is always pointing us towards what leads to life because of his love for us. What we what we have to understand is that this is ALL ABOUT LOVE. It always has been. It always will be. And it starts with understanding that God loves us, and because of that love he gave us a free gift, most importantly to receive eternal life, but also the grace and mercy to walk this life on earth overcoming sin and its repercussions and choosing to live by His standard, which leads to, as Jesus said, a rich and satisfying life.

It’s all about love. 1 John 4:7-8, 10 says, / / …let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. This is real love - not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

So, that was last week, God love us, and shows his mercy toward us. And verse 11 says, / / …since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. And if we’re honest, we’re probably going to ask, “But, only the people that are easy to love, right?”

Well, we’re going to look at what Jesus said in Luke 6:27-36, which is also found in Matthew 5, which we call the Sermon on the Mount. So, starting in vs 27 of Luke 6.

/ / “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners lend to other sinners for a full return.

“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”

That last line in most other translations is, / / Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Wow, so, that’s a heavy scripture, isn’t it?

/ / Love your enemies.

You might think, well, I don’t really have any enemies. That’s a big word. But, that word means / / someone you hate, or someone you find extremely unpleasant, someone who is hostile towards you, someone who opposes you.

This is one of the reasons I think the divide in our country has gotten so prevalent at the moment, because people are treating people like enemies. It’s the right word to use to describe what’s happening, but it’s not the right attitude to take, that’s for sure.

It seems all it takes these days is to voice your opinion about masks or vaccines and you can quickly make an enemy. Whether you are for or against, doesn’t really matter, both sides have bite in the words that follow. Friends find divides being built up between them. Family members not talking to other family members because of their own personal decisions on the matters.

Not to mention the political divide that seems to continue to grow. God forbid you voted for someone other than I voted for…

And Jesus says, Love your enemies, the ones you disagree with, the ones who oppose your point of view, those who show hostility toward you.… We probably need to do our series on Love again from 1 Corinthians 13, because that right there is a very big topic. But let’s just keep the focus of what Jesus is saying here, and he wraps it all up with the mandate he’s giving us, / / Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.

So he continues:

/ / Do good to those who hate you...

Bless those who curse you...

Pray for those who hurt you...

And he repeats, probably the most important part in vs 35, again, / / Love your enemies! Do good to them.

How do we do that? Honestly. What does that look like?

This scripture is almost exactly like the new commandment Jesus gives. In John 13:34 he says, / / So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.

We read from 1 John 4 earlier, / / God is love, well, in vs 19 it says, / / We love each other because he loved us FIRST.

So, / / AS I have loved you. he loved us FIRST. be merciful EVEN AS your Father is merciful.

That’s not a command, you have to be merciful because God is. That’s an invitation, as God has shown you mercy, and in so doing he has taught you how to show it to others. What you have received, give to those who also need it. This is the invitation.

In recovery, as we work through the 12 steps we take time to deal our own short comings, and we come in contact with the ways others have hurt us, things that have impacted us, maybe those we would consider enemies from what we’ve seen in this scripture. And it often starts with blaming someone else for our actions and our problems. Because that’s easier, we like to just blame someone else.

T.D. Jakes once said, / / “We have a tendency to want the other person to be a finished product while we give ourselves the grace to evolve.”

So, this is what we do in recovery, it’s called the Sick Man’s Prayer.

/ / This was our course: We realized the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves were sick too. We asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offended we said to ourselves, “This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done.”

God reminded me of this process as I was preparing this week because this is a perfect example of how we handle the words of Jesus in Luke 6. Be merciful as your Father has been merciful. What does it mean to show mercy?

/ / Recognize you’ve been hurt.

“We realized the people … wronged us… Though we did not like their symptoms and the way they disturbed us.”

It’s ok to be hurt. It’s ok to be wounded. It’s not fun. It’s not easy. But to recognize that we have been offended, or have the opportunity to take offense, is a very healthy thing. Because until we realize we are hurt, we can’t find healing. And when we simply just bottle things up, or play it off like nothing can hurt us, that usually just causes things to grow under the surface, and that does no good to anyone.

A friend once said to me, “Offense is not received, it is taken.”

When someone does something that can offend us, we actually have three options.

We have the opportunity to take it on as an offense, to be offended by it, and be hurt by it.

We have the opportunity to play it off like it’s no big deal didn’t hurt us, which often times comes back later on with a deeper hurt and pain that we’ve been holding and not allowing ourselves to feel.

We have the opportunity to recognize it for what it is. Maybe it did hurt us. We feel the sting. It’s not fair that they said it or did that to us, but we are unwilling to let that damage our relationship, so we work to resolve, to heal, and to forgive.

/ / Recognizing you’ve been hurt doesn’t make you weak, it shows strength. Because as Paul would say, it’s in recognizing our weakness and being ok with our weakness that we find God’s grace and in that weakness we are made strong. Not your strength, but your weakness that is the access to God’s strength.

We often play stronger than we are for the sake of saving ourselves the pain, but internally it does more damage in the long term than anything else, because a small offense when not looked after is like a wound that becomes infected over time. When not dealt with these wounds can become really painful. Especially if we have multiple wounds and if they are coming from the same person and we don’t deal with them, it breaks down relationships and only continues to hurt.

/ / Choose to Be Human

We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps…like ourselves... sick too.

I’ve said this before, I believe our humanity, and our sin, and the need for God’s grace is the great equalizer. None of us are perfect. All have sinned. All fall short of God’s glorious standard. Whether we like it or not. You, me, all of us, we are human and in need of a savior. And that levels the playing field. That means you, like me, probably aren’t perfect. And that’s the starting point to being able to tolerate each other. / / Tolerate means to accept or endure, someone or something unpleasant or disliked, with patience and self-control.

Your actions will no longer damage me, not because I’m putting up a strong front, I’m rubber and you’re glue, your words bounce off me and stick to you. That’s not it at all, it’s, I’ve struggled, I’ve hurt people, my actions have impacted others in ways I wish they hadn’t, and I recognize in my weakness, I’m not the only one.

This is the very definition of compassion, right? To take pity on someone because of THEIR suffering.

The enemy would like you to play the victim.

Look at how they hurt me.

Look at what THEY did.

I deserve to be angry.

I deserve to be hurt.

I deserve vengeance!

If I had written Luke 6 it would probably would’ve gone something a little bit like this:

Alright, listen up. Plan how you can humiliate your enemies and prove they are wrong. When someone hates you, cut them off, show them how wrong they are and how good you are. If someone curses you, flip em’ the bird and you show them how much their words don’t even effect you. It’s like hitting steal. Someone tries to take your coat, knock em’ flat on their butt. People are trying to take advantage of you, stop giving. Ain’t nothin’ free in this world, hold on to what you’ve got tightly. It’s insane how people borrow stuff and never give it back, isn’t it? Do to them what they’ve done to you. Treat them like that. You wanna push me, I’ll push back. You want to fight. I’ll fight. You talk bad about me. I know what you’ve done and I’ll tell the world...

Kind of contrary to what Jesus said, isn’t it? But probably a little closer to how we think on the day to day…

Do you deserve vengeance? Maybe. I mean. Demanding punishment for what someone did wrong towards you is the natural course of action, isn’t it? Seems logical even. But Jesus says be merciful.

Jesus dealt with this directly in Matthew 9. It’s the story of when he calls Matthew to follow him as his disciple. Matthew was one of the twelve disciples that Jesus pulled very close to him. Who would go on to write the book of Matthew, become an Apostle of the early church. But he sure didn’t start out that way.

Matthew 9:9 says, / / As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

Now, you have to understand how crazy this is. Matthew would have been a complete outcast at this point to the Jewish people. The Jews are under Roman occupation, and the romans would hire them to be the tax collectors. These tax collectors were then responsible for collecting heavy taxes from their own people and they did it in hopes of receiving favor with the Romans in charge. Most were also corrupt, cheating people out of more money and pocketing it. They became rich off the backs of their own people and were looked at as betrayers. So, for Jesus to say to Matthew, leave that life and follow me, not only would be a very big deal for Matthew, but for anyone else looking at Jesus they would say, “do you know who that is???”

In fact, they did. Matthew 9:10-13, / / Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees [religious leaders] saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t ned a doctor - sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Jesus is quoting Hosea 6:6, I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.

See, the Pharisees were sticklers for the law. They demanded absolute perfection and lorded it over people that couldn’t live up to the law like they did. This is completely contrary to the way Jesus was doing things. Jesus said he came to complete, or fulfill the law, and then says to his disciples, as we read earlier, a new commandment I give you, love...

In quoting this scripture, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, Jesus is continuing this narrative, Be merciful as my Father is merciful. God was merciful in fulfilling the law through Jesus Christ, that all who believe in him will receive eternal life, no longer requiring sacrifice, so now, you too, be merciful. What you have received, give to others.

He’s trying to show the Pharisees there’s a new way. But one of the problems the Pharisees had was that they liked the position they had as superior, as being the ones who kept the law. So, Jesus is leveling the playing field, we all need MERCY, and they don’t like that, because they think they are better than these “scum” Jesus is now hanging out with.

They too were sick in their own way, and when Jesus says, “Go figure out what this means...” if they actually did that, they would come across their own sickness as well.

So, what next? How do we do this? Jesus said, “Go learn what this means...” What does that mean for us today?

/ / Ask God for Change

We asked God to help us show the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend.

And I would add, the same we had hoped for and received ourselves. Did you see in the middle of Luke 6 in vs 31, is the Golden Rule, / / Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

We ask God for mercy, we must be merciful. How can we expect judgement for others when we want God to be merciful to us? Something has to change. And when I recognize that I want mercy, but I’m kind of judgmental, I have to go to the only one who can change my heart. And that is Almighty God!

If we keep reading in 1 John 4 in vs 20 it says in the Good News Translation, / / If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen. The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also.

I don’t know about you, but I treat God differently than I treat other people sometimes. I would definitely say I love God, but I definitely struggle with loving some people.

So, how do we fix that? We ask God to help us show the same mercy to others as we have received from him. We love because he first loved us. Be merciful as He has been merciful. And don’t be ashamed that you can’t do it yourself. That’s the whole point. It’s actually HIS point. He wants to SHOW you his mercy so that you know HOW to be merciful. Own that weakness, identify with it. I’m weak, I NEED his strength. I need HIS mercy. I need him to show ME compassion.

It starts with a change in the head and in the heart.

Romans 12:2, / / Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Right now I might struggle with how I think toward other people, but with God’s help, with God’s power, with Holy Spirit in my life and me ASKING & ALLOWING Him to change me, He will. Because He is faithful!

But you have to ask. Ask God to change your heart. Give him permission to change the way you think. It’s no good if we just think we’re good enough, or we can do it on our own. Paul’s confidence came from understanding that HE was weak, and it was in HIS weakness that God proved to be strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10, For when I am weak, then I am strong.

/ / Called to Action

When a person offended we said to ourselves, “This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done.” We avoid retaliation or argument. We wouldn’t treat sick people that way. If we do, we destroy our chance of being helpful. We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one.

After asking for an internal change, we must commit to an external one as well. See, God’s mercy wasn’t just empathy on our situation, a concern for us, but it was also the act of Jesus coming to die on a cross so we could be free and reconciled to him.

Mercy doesn’t stop at feeling and it doesn’t stop at the recognition that the other person needs mercy just like we do. And we don’t leave it up to God to delivery mercy when we are able to in the moment. See, we will never save people, that’s not our job. Jesus did that. That’s HIS mercy toward us. But he calls us to have mercy toward others. And if the mercy God showed us compelled Jesus to endure the Cross, we have to ask, what does our mercy toward others produce in us as action?

This is where it gets practical, this is where our mercy becomes an action.

Sometimes that action is to forgive when they don’t deserve it.

Sometimes that action is to give without demand for repayment.

Sometimes that action is genuinely speaking words of life over someone who says horrible things about you. And that takes work, it’s not easy. And it certainly doesn’t come naturally, but it’s what mercy calls us to.

But what if we stopped putting people down. Stopped calling out their shortcomings, and started blessing their lives. What if we stopped looking for negative, and spoke the positive?

Sometimes mercy looks like praying for people that have hurt us. That doesn’t mean, “Lord, give them what they deserve...” more like, “God, would you have mercy on them, give them the life they need and meet them.” Jesus prayed AS HE WAS HANGING ON THE CROSS, / / “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

For me that sounds like, “They’re sick just like I’m sick, and they are probably doing the best they can with what they have... just like me. So God, forgive them, what they did is hurting me, but don’t hold it against them, show them mercy...”

Sometimes that mercy looks like loving those who oppose you. What’s that mean? Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Sometimes mercy is not just feeling bad for the guy at the corner asking for money, but it’s being moved to give him something too.

Oh, I know, he might use it for something bad. I know he might not even need it. Who knows. I know the deaf guy isn’t actually deaf because he was walking away and we called out and he turned. I know these things happen....mercy says put all that aside and SHOW compassion.

No, I’m not saying be willfully taken advantage of. Discretion and Wisdom are gifts from God as well. Right? We always need to remember that and be asking for God’s discernment.

Mercy sometimes means treating someone else the way we want to be treated.

So, Luke 6:36, / / You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Show mercy, even as your Father has shown you mercy.

Mercy isn’t always easy to give. But I think the more we are aware of the mercy God has and does show us, and remind ourselves that if we didn’t deserve it, but because of Grace he gave it anyway, maybe we can try to do the same. And if we remind ourselves that he doesn’t expect us to know how to do that today, but that he allows us the process of learning and growing, we can give ourselves to that process, to learn and grow in mercy. It’s worth it. Because it’s what we’re called to.

Maybe this morning you’re in that place of having received offense, or experienced pain at the hands of someone else, and you felt you needed to be strong, like you couldn’t show that it hurt you. I want to pray for you this morning because God wants to heal that wound and for you to be free from the pain. God’s standard for your life is to be free, to be merciful, even if they don’t deserve it, but because you show mercy, you free yourself from the pain and the infection of the wound. I want you to picture that person in your minds eye right now. Whether it’s something recent, someone just hurt you this week, did something to offend you or hurt you, and you might think, it was just a small thing....that’s ok. And maybe this is a wound that’s been there for years. Some of you have been carrying wounding since you were kids. It’s time to let it go. With that person in mind, I want you to pray with me:

God, I’ve held on to this pain, I’ve carried this wound like a badge. I was so hurt. And I’ve held it against ___________ (say their name). Holy Spirit, I want to be free from this pain, and healed of this wound. I know you have shown me mercy. I want to show this person mercy. Would you heal my wound, as I release them from what they did to me. If you won’t hold my sin against me, I won’t hold their sin against them.

And if this is hard for you. If you don’t feel ready, but you want to be. Pray this with me. God, with your help, I choose to show mercy. I choose to give the gift of forgiveness, to no longer hold this against them. Would you heal this wound in my heart.

Maybe you see this in your life more often than you want. I know I do. I wish I didn’t have those reactions to how people treat me. I wish I was calmer, more understanding.

Let’s pray about that too. God, would you help me to be merciful just like you are. Change my heart. Transform who I am by changing the way I think. Let my first reaction be mercy instead of judgement. Let my first thought be on my weakness, rather than trying to prove how strong I am. And let me feel YOUR strength.