Jul 29 2024

Today's Bible Verse

He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

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In this verse from Proverbs, we are reminded of the importance of forgiveness. If we do not forgive others? Sins against us, and instead bring them up again and again, we can eventually lose valuable relationships in our lives. On the other hand, when we truly forgive each other, we are able to love each other well.

We are all pretty much guaranteed to be deeply hurt by another person. The converse is also true; we are very likely to hurt another person. We will often need to seek forgiveness and give forgiveness, as painful as the situation is. When we decide to offer forgiveness, we are seeking love. We are saying that we will overlook how someone has hurt us because we value them more than the pain they have caused us. Even more so, we recognize that we have been forgiven as well.

As Christians, we cannot rightly harbor unforgiveness in our hearts. This is because we have already been forgiven for so much. Jesus sees all our sins, and He went to the cross, carrying them on His back to Calvary. He decided to overlook how He was wronged so that we could have a chance at a relationship with the Lord. We live in the eternal promise of His forgiveness—we know that He will not hold anything back from us because He loves us so much.

When we don't forgive other people, it drives a wedge in that relationship and between us and the Lord. Refusing to forgive is, in essence, saying that what Jesus did on the cross was not enough for that person who hurt us. Jesus takes our pain seriously, and when He died on the cross, He was taking into account the many, specific ways that people would hurt us. Because of this, harboring unforgiveness is essentially rejecting the power of the cross to forgive all sin.

When we do forgive, however, we experience grace. We help the other person find relief from the pain that their own actions caused them, helping them get free from guilt and shame. We also get a tangible reminder of how the Lord forgave us. Forgiving other people lets us experience grace from the other side and frees us from anger, frustration, and bitterness that can fester and ruin our relationships. Forgiveness is an inevitable part of life, and it has made our relationships with the Lord possible in the first place. Because of this, we should be willing to forgive others.

Today's Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for covering my transgressions. Thank you for not holding them over my head or reminding me of them time after time. You are so good to me, Lord. Help me to show the same forgiveness and goodness to others. I do not want to hold anything against anyone when I know that I have been forgiven for so much. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Jul 28 2024

Yesterday's Bible Verse

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. :

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Yesterday's Bible study

In this verse from Ephesians, the apostle Paul writes about the hope of our calling in Jesus. What are some great things that we have to look forward to as Christians? I can think of many—Heaven, eternal fellowship with the Lord, intimacy with Him in difficult times, and the opportunity to serve Him on a day-to-day basis.

Have you ever struggled to know what your calling is? Some people, including myself, have struggled to know what their vocation should be: a teacher? an artist? a doctor? something else? In other instances, we struggle to know what the Lord wants us to do in a particular circumstance. Regardless of questions like these, we can have a firm grip on the most important calling on our lives—our high calling in Jesus.

Our high calling starts with our decision to give our lives to Jesus, but that is only the beginning. After we have begun our relationship with the Lord, we are called to get to know Him more for the rest of our lives and all eternity. This begins with things like reading the Bible, worshipping, and praying. In prayer, we can experience intimacy with the Lord by talking to Him and responding to what He reveals to us about ourselves and our next steps.

Part of our high calling is having confidence in what will happen after we die. We are called to be with the Lord forever: We will be surrounded by His goodness, love, and grace all the days of our lives. We will be able to worship Him forever in a way that pleases Him perfectly… and there is no higher calling than this.

Even more exciting, this high calling does not begin in the near future, but right now. We can step into God's calling in our lives today. This means we can transform our view of our lives into one of excitement and pleasure. Each day of our lives is holy because the Lord is active in the world today and through us. We can begin to walk in our high calling—to share His love with those who need Him most—even now.

Yesterday's Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for the hope that we have in you. You are so good to us, Lord, and we look forward to experiencing eternity with you. Thank you for the sweet, eternal promise of heaven. Help me to never forget the hope in my calling. In Jesus' name, amen.
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