Pat Deckert – Member since 1987 

Matthew 18:21-22, 35 (Read also 23-34)
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”  22“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! 35“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

Luke 17:20-21
20Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Genesis 32:28
28And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Reflection:
One of the most read books in 1942 was Abundant Living by E. Stanley Jones, a Methodist missionary to India and Japan in the early 20th century. It was heralded as a “must read” in this troubled and confusing world. Those words could have been written today. One idea was that the Kingdom of God is within you, the total person, total life and that God reveals himself in Jesus Christ, his Son of highest moral character and that Christ’s character determines ours.

I KNOW God. I have known God since I was six years old. Yet, when asked to describe God, I am at a loss for words that describe THE biggest person in my life. I know that I was created in God’s image. Really? I never thought God looked like me, acted like me, loved like me, spoke like me, shared like me, kept promises like me, and MOST unlikely, forgave like me.

So, all those many years ago, when I began searching to know the nature of God, many people helped me. They ranged from my mother’s friends who taught me the stories of Jesus in Sunday School, to the many pastors of the six churches to which I have belonged. I could never forget the spiritual authors and fellow seekers along the way. I came to realize that the lessons I learned were ways in which God reveals himself and his nature. Throughout the month, the Daily Habit writers have discussed the characteristics of that nature.

As an encouragement to myself and, hopefully to you, God’s forgiving character is where I was led. If you’ve read the Old Testament, you know that it is the story of the Israelites promising to follow God’s rules, breaking them, and God forgiving them over and over. When God spoke to Moses through the burning bush, God did not exclude Jacob, who had lived a life of deception and when forgiven led to a changed life. God even gave him a new name—Israel. That was big-time forgiveness for an individual.

Throughout the life of Jesus, he used parables and action to teach us about forgiveness. While the people in my life who I have been unable to forgive can be counted on the fingers of one hand with even a spare or two, it is the characteristic of which I feel I least resemble God. Forgiveness is hard!

What do these scriptures tell me? If I read the whole story in Matthew 18:21-35, it tells me that along with forgiveness, God also asks me to forgive from my heart as God has forgiven me. In this parable the master showed anger because the forgiven person did not forgive another.  In explaining the seventy times seven times, former President Jimmy Carter offered up in his book, Sources of Strength, that even after forgiving someone, anger may boil up again and again and we may have to repeat the act of forgiveness on our journey of healing. Forgiveness is a cycle of continually practicing grace—grace toward others and grace toward ourselves.

Closing Prayer:
Father God, thank you for nudging me out of my comfort zone to share a part of my journey toward learning more about as many of the aspects of your character and nature as I can. Thank you for the abundant life that you have made available to me and the long life I have enjoyed. You know my joys and my struggles. Nudge me, push me to do my part in living into your image. It’s in the name of your perfect Son that I ask this. Amen.