Worthy Devotions – Daily Christian Devotion » Forgiveness

Revelation 4:10-11 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Yesterday, we talked about “tashlich” – the traditional Jewish ceremony occurring between Rosh ha Shana and Yom Kippur, which involves casting bread crumbs into a river while confessing our sins and watching them be swept downstream. In this passage, however, we read about the importance of casting our crowns. These elders fell down before the Lord, casted their golden crowns and gave God the glory and honor He deserves. How much more should we do the same today?

Let’s spend this season casting our crowns — giving back to God the praise and adoration He so deserves for all that He has given us. He offered His only Son for our atonement, that we could be washed clean and live eternally — and even abundantly. He loves us, though we daily fail Him and grieve His Spirit with our thoughts and actions. He helps us in our times of need and gives us revelation when we seek Him. Thank you Lord, for ALL Your blessings toward us — You are Good and Your mercy endures forever — hallelujah!

1 Cor. 15:51-54 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

What’s interesting about Rosh Ha Shana (the Jewish celebration of the New Year), is that it doesn’t fall on the first day of the first month. It actually falls on the first day of the seventh month! It’s difficult for outsiders to understand this concept, but if we study how the Jewish year begins and how God is outlining this age according to the Jewish feasts it all makes sense. The first month of the Jewish year begins with Passover. Two thousand years ago, the new age began with the crucifixion of Jesus on the Cross on Passover! Next, Messiah rose from the dead precisely on day of the celebration of first fruits. Then, fifty days later, the Feast of Shavout (Pentecost) began the celebration of the harvest season. This day marked the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the beginnings of the first harvest right here in Jerusalem as three thousand souls came into the kingdom!

Now, here we are, in the midst of the summer harvest — the harvest of souls, awaiting the great sound of the trumpet! When the trumpet sounds — it shall be the beginning of a new age when “this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality!”

So as we celebrate Rosh Ha Shana or Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets), it’s a reminder that this age is soon coming to a close — that the summer will soon end and there will be no more days to work. Let’s take heed the sound of the shofar and rise to this awesome occasion!

We live this life only once, so let’s do what we need to do while we still can! Let’s not put off the good we are called to do! Don’t put off forgiving others — forgive now! Don’t put off sharing with that neighbor with whom you’ve been wanting to share for years –share now! Don’t put off going forth and doing the great things God has called you to do — do them now! These are the final days of the harvest — let’s get out into the field and finish the work that needs done so that we might all be able to rejoice together in the end!!

Romans 12:20-21 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Between the years 1861-1865 the United States found itself in the midst of a bitter civil war over the issue of slavery, and several other serious disagreements. By the time the North won the war nearly 620,000 soldiers had perished. There were many in the North who were so embittered that the South had dragged them into such a deadly conflict that they wanted the South to pay dearly.

At the end of the war, a group of Southerners gained an audience with President Abraham Lincoln. His gentle, kind and friendly personality quickly softened the hearts of his once-hardened foes and the Southerners left the interview with a deep respect for the man who had been their bitter enemy. Not long afterward, a northern congressman criticized Lincoln for “befriending the enemy!” He suggested that he should have had them shot for being traitors instead of welcoming them!

I love Lincoln’s response. He said, simply , “Am I not destroying my enemies by making them my friends?”

If you’re serving the Lord –- you can expect your share of enemies. Don’t let a root of bitterness grow up because of them –- but rather, seek to win them over with gentleness, kindness, and even love. Show your enemies the Lord’s grace and His peace through your Spirit-controlled response…and in so doing, you’ll “heap coals” upon their heads! Satan wants to provoke you through their hatred and opposition. Don’t let him! Instead, shock your enemies –- not with angry retaliation…but with Spirit empowered LOVE! Win them over; with so much work to be done, we need all the help we can get.

2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

As Scotland was declaring its independence from England in the 1300’s, the English were hunting for Robert Bruce of Scotland in an attempt to prevent his accession to the Scottish throne. In the search, the English put Bruce’s own bloodhounds on his trail. As they grew closer to apprehending him, Robert the Bruce found a small river, and he said to his foster-brother who was with him, “Let us wade down this stream for a great way, instead of going straight across, and so these unhappy hounds will lose the scent; for if we were once clear of them, I should not be afraid of getting away from the pursuers.”

Robert the Bruce escaped his pursuers by entering a river, and not long afterward, the crown of Scotland rested on his head.

The devil uses our own “sin-hounds” to hunt us relentlessly — past and present sins, he uses, to keep us from our crown, our position with Christ, and the rewards which will follow a life of abiding in Him. But we also have a way of escape! Entering into the river of God which flows with the blood of Jesus, being totally cleansed, the “hounds of sin” cannot touch us, and we too, can come out on the other side, free, and ready to reign with Him!

Allow your sins to be washed away — swept into eternity by the cleansing flow of the blood of Christ, and walk in the freedom that Jesus provided 2000 years ago. Let your past with all its sins be washed downstream, realizing that a crown of righteousness awaits you, and every other saint who loves His appearing!

Mark 11:26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Today’s word is not Hebrew or Greek, it’s Eskimo! The word is issumagijoujunnainermik. When missionaries first shared the gospel with the Eskimos, they couldn’t find any word in the Eskimo language for forgiveness. So, they took a number of Eskimo words and joined them to form a new word — Issu-magi-jou-jun-nai-ner-mik — and it became the Eskimo word for forgiveness. The individual words are “Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.”

Too often we remember the hurt, replaying it over and over again in our minds. Forgiveness is not something we do just once. It is something we must reaffirm every day. Whenever a hurtful memory comes up, remember the word Issu-magi-jou-jun-nai-ner-mik, and say, “I can’t think about it anymore, it’s in God’s hands.”

Rather than replay the hurt you may have acquired, replay God’s mercy, His grace, His love for us (and them) — when He freely gave His life. That will enable us to forget it and move forward.

Phillipians 3:13-15 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

New Year’s Eve celebrations have come and gone. Now the reality is settling in — it’s 2008!! Some of us are wondering where in the world the time went… the Lord knows I am.

A famous preacher, Henry Ward Beecher once said: “We have passed through one more year. One more long stage in the journey of life, with its ascents and descents and dust and mud and rocks and thorns and burdens that wear the shoulders, is done. The old year is dead. Roll it away. Let it go. God, in His providence, has brought us out of it. It is gone; . . . its evil is gone; its good remains. The evil has perished, and the good survives.”

I say amen to that — how ’bout you?

Let’s be sure to confess the sins of 2007 today. Roll them away. Let them go. Rest assured in the fact they are forgiven so we can confidently look towards the future. Today is the beginning of a fresh new year. Let’s press forward to do exciting and new things for the Lord — ’cause there’s sooooo much work to be done!!

Col 3:13-14 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity (agape), which is the bond of perfectness.

After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a once beautiful old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, “Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it.”

The enemy is constantly attacking the body of Messiah. Some of his most effective tactics are anger, bitterness and unforgiveness. Paul wrote that we should never be ignorant of the enemy’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11), and our lives should be marked with love one for another….and above all things, to put on charity. The word charity in Greek is the word agape!

Jesus has come and has forgiven us. We simply need to forgive others. We must base our relationships with others on the same criteria that God bases His relationship with us: love, acceptance and forgiveness. Our acts of forgiveness will set the captives free … and at the end of it all, we may realize that we were the captives!

Let’s cut down the battered trees in our lives! Let’s seek to be forgivers and to put on agape love.

James 3:5-6 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

An old copy of Today in the Word contains this story.

“In the washroom of his London club, British newspaper publisher and politician William Beverbrook happened to meet Edward Heath, then a young member of Parliament, about whom Beverbrook had printed an insulting editorial a few days earlier. “My dear chap,” said the publisher, embarrassed by the encounter. “I’ve been thinking it over, and I was wrong. Here and now, I wish to apologize.” “Very well,” grunted Heath. “But the next time, I wish you’d insult me in the washroom and apologize in your newspaper.”

Too often, we allow ourselves the liberty to say things for which we end up being sorry later. Ugggh. I hate it when that happens. And I don’t believe the Lord is all that happy about it either. We really need to think before we speak! I heard one person once put it beautifully. Before we say something let’s “THINK”!

T- is it True? H- is it Helpful? I- is it Inspiring? N- is it Necessary? K- is it Kind? THINK! If what we’re about to say does not pass those tests, let’s not say it!

God has great things for us to be doing. We must allow Him to refine us and prepare us for His work! Let’s strive to think before we speak. There’s so much work to be done!

Matthew 6:14-15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Last evening began the holiday of Pesach (Passover), the day we remember God’s merciful redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. When the final plague struck Pharoh and the Egyptians in Exodus, those who were spared were were the ones who applied blood to their doorposts as God warned. Interestingly, the blood that God required them to apply then was the blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb.

As believers in Messiah, we are blessed to have the blood of Jesus, our Passover Lamb, applied upon the doorposts of our hearts. The judgment we deserve has passed over us! And thankfully we can celebrate His redemption in our lives as well this season.

While this is a special time to celebrate God’s passing over our sins, there is one thing we sometimes overlook. Not only should we remember the Lord’s passing over our sins, but equally important is our obedience in passing over others’ sins. Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. This is the way Jesus taught us to pray, is it not? Today we have the opportunity to make this prayer a reality in our lives.

Has someone offended you? Committed a sin against you? It happens, and unfortunately, it will probably happen again, as we live in a world full of sin. But we need to pass over those offenses just as God has passed over ours.

Passover is the season to give our hurts to the Lord. Let’s allow Him to heal and free us, and those we’ve hurt and who’ve hurt us. We have been forgiven many offenses by the innocent blood of our Messiah. How much more should we forgive?

Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

At any time, how receptive your heart is will determine your response to God’s word. If your heart has been trampled, and harden by bitterness and unforgiveness, then receiving God’s message for you will become more difficult. If your heart is like shallow soil on top of a rock, then your mind comprehends God’s truths, yet these truths do not penetrate your heart to make a real difference in your actions. Or if you are concerned about the riches of this life, then your focus is on the here and now, and these pursuits prevent God’s Word from taking hold and producing quality fruit. But a heart that is on good soil, receives the Word, applies the Word, and in due time bring forth abundant fruit! This is God’s desire for you — to have a heart cultivated on good soil!

How do you cultivate a heart on good soil? Repent of any bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, or any other sin that is hardening your heart! Seek the power of God to search your heart thoroughly and completely to root out all the weeds that hinder cultivating good soil. Cultivating good soil is a daily task — weeds spring up out of nowhere to hinder our growth. But , you are not ignorant of Satan’s devices (2 Cor. 2:11). So break up your fallow ground, sow yourself in His righteousness, and soon you will bring forth abundant fruit fit for the kingdom!

Cultivate your life in Him — and He will produce His fruit through you!