How Gratitude Rebuilds Broken Relationships

Forgiveness is not just about the person who was hurt; we also look at the posture of the person who needs mercy and wants a relationship restored. We walk through Luke 7 and learn how gratitude, humility, and patience rebuild trust far better than entitlement ever will. 

• the overlooked question of what the forgiven person should do next 
• Luke 7:36-50 and what the “sinful woman” teaches about devotion 
• the parable of two debtors and why love grows with awareness of mercy 
• “Do you see this woman?” and the difference between looking and seeing 
• how labels and cancel culture trap people in their worst moment 
• basic honor versus extravagant gratitude and what it reveals about the heart 
• humility as evidence of real repentance that heaven notices 
• why forgiveness does not always mean instant reinstatement 
• giving people time and space to heal while you stay consistent and warm 

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Transcript

Forgiveness, Hurt, And Regret

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Light of Life podcast. I'm your host, Ritendo. Thank you so much for being with me today. Our topic of discussion today is a heavy one because I'm pretty sure everyone has gone through this. Somewhere in your life, you've been wronged, you've been wounded, you've had to deal with the conversation of forgiveness. But I want to ask you this: have you ever needed forgiveness? Have you ever been in a situation where you messed up, you dropped the ball somewhere, and you are regretting every day, kicking yourself, and you want so badly to mend that relationship, you want to be reinstated back into your old position in that friendship, in that marriage, in that relationship, but the person is not hearing it. So if that sounds familiar, this conversation is definitely for you. And the information today is going to give you a better chance, a greater percentage of repairing that lost relationship. And I believe it's even going to help you to understand and to equip you to even salvage some future relationships before they are irretrievably broken. So we are discussing the topic of forgiveness. And before you skip or move on, I want you to wait and listen to the angle that we're going to be learning and discussing and diving deeper from, because we're going to be learning about forgiveness from the Master Himself, from Jesus, our Lord and Savior. One of the things that I've noticed whenever the topic of forgiveness is brought up, or whenever it comes up, whether in church, at a wellness retreat, it's in self-help books, somehow it always concentrates on the person who has been hurt, the hurt person. We tell them forgiveness is for them. We tell them to let go of bitterness. We tell them holding on to resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. You are always reminded, if you're the one who've been hurt, you're reminded that, hey, God has forgiven you, so might as well go on and extend that forgiveness. And while there is truth in those statements, I totally and completely and wholly am in agreement with those teachings. I have, on the other hand, have felt, I felt like there's something missing in that conversation.

The Posture Of Someone Seeking Mercy

SPEAKER_01 2:56

And like I said, forgiveness is taught to the wounded person. But what about the person that has been forgiven? Because there are two people in this equation. We always need to include the other person who has wronged the person. What should they look like? What should they be doing? What should their posture be? What is the posture of a person who is seeking forgiveness or a person who has been forgiven? How do you behave after you've received mercy or if you're looking forward to receiving mercy? And I think that that's a question that we don't ask enough. All we concentrate on doing is guilting the person who has been wronged. No matter how deeply they've been wounded, we always try to make them feel guilty. They forgive out of guilt, not because they have had enough of the word or the Holy Spirit convicting them, but we try to convict them. We try to take the place of the Holy Spirit and guilt the person into forgiving someone. So perhaps, maybe, while we concentrate on the wounded one, we can all identify moments when we were hurt. In fact, you know, in my language, we have this saying, I'm doing a direct translation. It says, the axe forgets, but the tree that was cut always remembers. We always remember the betrayal, the disappointment. We remember the people. Even someone who let you down when you were in second grade, I all you almost know them exactly by name, where they lived, what they were wearing on the day, when they did whatever they did to you. It's human nature. But if we are honest, there have been moments where you have been the offender. You've hurt someone before. There have been moments where you were the reason someone cried. There have been moments where you have broken trust in a relationship. You've disappointed someone, you've wounded someone. You have failed to live up to what is expected of you. So before we take a further deep dive into today's scripture, this podcast exists to paint a realistic picture of the life of a believer. Aside from what religion has maybe previously taught you, what you've been taught in Sunday school, what you grew up being maybe indoctrinated with, it is God's desire for you to know what the true walk of faith looks like and how to stay in relationship with him each day. My genuine desire is to guide you towards a relationship with him, not just going through the motions of religious uh religious rites and rituals. You need to be in relationship with him. Coming back to our subject, like I said before, if you've lived long enough, you will find yourself on both sides of forgiveness. You might be the one extending mercy, you might be the one desperately needing it.

Luke 7 At Simon’s Dinner

SPEAKER_01 6:19

So, our scripture today, we're looking at the account in Luke chapter 7, very popular scripture. This is Luke chapter 7, verse 36 up to verse 50. And this is the encounter of a woman who is not named, but she's simply referred to as the sinful woman, not to be confused with Mary of Bethany, because she also performed a similar act on Jesus. But Jesus had been invited to a Pharisee's house to have dinner with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, reclined at a table, and while he was reclining at the table, a woman in that town who was known to live a sinful life, she learned that Jesus was eating at this Pharisee's house. So she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him, she was actually at his feet, rather, weeping. And she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with her hair, and she kissed his feet, and she poured this luxurious perfume on his feet. So now, when this Pharisee, who saw, who knew the reputation first of the lady, and saw how Jesus was so open to this lady touching him, he thought to himself, he didn't really say it out loud, he thought to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who was touching him, what kind of woman she is. She's a sinner. This is just, these are just his inner thoughts. But I love what Jesus did. He turned to him and he said, Simon. In fact, if you read verse 40, it says, And Jesus answered him as if he had asked a question out loud. Jesus answered his thoughts. And Jesus answered Simon. And he said, Simon, I have something to tell you. And then, like an innocent little lamb, like he wasn't thinking all them judgmental thoughts, he said, Tell me, teacher. Then Jesus began to say, to tell him a parable. Now, a parable was one of Jesus' teaching tools that he used to help people understand. He would find an earthly story, an analogy, an image to illustrate spiritual matters or heavenly matters. And then he said, Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him 500 denari and the other 50. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now, which of them do you think will love him more? And then Simon the Pharisee replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven. You have judged correctly, Jesus said. And then he turned towards the woman. But then he continued to speak to Simon. He said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss. But this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little. Then Jesus said to her, Your sins are forgiven. And the other guests began to say amongst themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? And Jesus said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. I love this story so much because we heard this story growing up. It was preached, I don't know how many hundreds of times that I've heard it. But as I was studying and meditating and praying, because I always say, if you are a returning listener, as you read the word, you need to do so prayerfully. You need to be asking the Holy Spirit questions. You need to have your mind and spirit open to receive the lesson of the day from Him. I see a story, a lesson about gratitude, a lesson about humility. Though I know the traditional teaching is about forgiveness. And remember, when I introduced the topic, I said we're talking about the posture and the position of the person who has received mercy, who needs forgiveness, who has done something wrong and is seeking to be brought back into a relationship. I told you when I read this story, I began, well, let me say the Holy Spirit began to teach me about how a person is supposed to behave when they truly understand the mercy that they have received. Perhaps this is what makes this story very relevant in our lives. Because many of us we want forgiveness. We all want grace. We want second chances. But have you ever really stopped to consider what kind of response is supposed to produce that in me? According to Jesus, what I'm understanding here, forgiveness is not something that you just receive. But according to Jesus, or at least what I'm understanding, forgiveness is not something that you just receive because you want it, because you think you deserve it. It's something that should transform the way that you live, the way that you love, even after you've received it. Receiving forgiveness is not the end of the story, it's not the end of the discussion. There's a life to be lived after, which is going to show if you are worthy of that forgiveness or not. Now let's dig deeper and really go lesson by

Forgiveness Should Change Your Life

SPEAKER_01 12:51

lesson. And I want to share with you what I understood, and the Holy Spirit was opening my understanding to be able to grasp. If you go to verse 40, when Jesus starts talking to Simon, remember I read that Simon was judgmental in his heart, that if he was a prophet, he would not have let this woman touch him. And when Jesus starts talking to him, giving him that parable, it appears as if he's contrasting a righteous man and a sinful woman. Or at least that's how I think this Simon is looking at it, because he's saying the woman is a sinner. And he's not considering himself a sinner because he's a Pharisee, he's respectable, he doesn't have this reputation. He's the host, hosting this big religious leader that has just come. Because according to the way he's treated Jesus, I don't think he really gave him that respect of the Messiah. But the woman now, on the other hand, she has a reputation that already precedes her. She lives a sinful life. To Simon, the categories are simple. She's the sinful one, I'm the righteous one. She belongs amongst the sinners. But Jesus now, he brought in a way of thinking that just dismantles all those categories that he had created for himself. Because he says one man had been forgiven of a few ordinary, and the other had been forgiven of much. But both of them were in debt. They owed this moneylender. So Jesus is also all indirectly rebuking Simon that you are also a sinner. Though this woman seemingly has many sins. Before he says anything about the woman's actions and the things that he's done, he starts by giving Simon the lesson. And he asks him a question that's that it seems like it's unnecessary, the question that he asks Simon. He says, Simon, do you see this woman? That's what he says to him. And it's a striking question because Simon had been looking at this woman the entire time. Remember, in his mind, when he saw what was happening, he had already started this judgmental conversation in his mind, meaning the woman was within his view. But Jesus said to him, Simon, do you see this woman? He saw her enter the room, he saw her crying, he saw her touching Jesus and performing the seemingly intimate acts that he condemned in his mind. Yet Jesus still asks him, Do you see this woman? Because, ladies and gentlemen, there is a difference between looking at someone and truly seeing them. Jesus is challenging Simon to look beyond reputation and someone's outward representative. Don't see the sinner that you've heard of. I want you to look at this woman and see a person of dignity, a person of worth. And this question is inviting Simon the Pharisee. Remember, Pharisees are teachers of the word who are supposed to be well versed with these issues. But Jesus is saying to Simon, you need to look past these societal labels and prejudice. If you know your history, or if you just maybe look it up, you'll see that in the cultural context back in the day, the Jewish culture, women, especially those with a sinful reputation, they were really disregarded. As a woman, you were already disenfranchised. But if you are now a woman in sin, you were, they didn't want you to be within the community. You were shunned, you were an outcast. So Jesus asking Simon, look at this woman. Do you see this woman? It's a call. Like recognize her humanity, her act of devotion. Don't just look at the sin. Look at what she's doing. If she was such a sinner, would she even consider me? Would she even show me such love, such devotion? So, Jesus, his question to Simon, and I think this question that Jesus asked Simon is as relevant today as it was in this situation that we just read. We

Seeing Beyond Labels And Cancel Culture

SPEAKER_01 17:18

live in a world, and I know you know this, we live in a world that is so quick to reduce someone to the worst thing that they have ever done. Cancel culture. Your life can change now over a tweet that you sent years ago. Maybe you were high on weed, or your friends had dared you to do it, or you were you were angry, or maybe you were drunk and you sent a horrible tweet out. But look at your life now. Look at how you have transformed yourself. You no longer drink, maybe, or you drink responsibly, or you don't party anymore, or feel the way that you felt in that moment 10 years ago. You use your social media responsibly now. Some of you, you use your social media for advocacy work, maybe to grow your business. Yet when you go for that visa interview, they're going to look at your digital footprint, things that you posted on Facebook. I just cringe when you know those reminders come up on Facebook of this is you 10 years ago. And some of the things that I posted, and I'm like, what is this me who posted this? Whether it's a picture or even just a status update that I put on Facebook on the internet. The world is unforgiving. Just this morning, I saw this story of this South African kid. I know he was trying to make light of the situation, but I could tell he had been affected profoundly by what happened to him. Some years back when he was just finishing high school, he had some internet argument with someone that was considered cyberbullying, teenage stuff. While I know it's harmful, he forgot all about that. He applied to colleges, got into the university of his dreams. Right when he was about to get into the university, they said you have a criminal record. The case that he had from years prior had been reopened. And he was actually, he went to jail for four months, came out, and after he came out, they said, You are banned for five years. You cannot apply to any university for the next five years. So imagine he had this dream, his one shot that he felt like, okay, the time is right, the money is there, I'm going to college. Just to be gone, like that. There was no option for him to apologize, to make up for it, just like that. One mistake can become your identity. One mistake. You can be known as a thief your whole life. Yet you went to jail, you went to prison for theft maybe 20 years ago. And that label stays with you. You're known as a rapist. I'm not defending rapists or people who commit those crimes, but I'm saying maybe you made one mistake because you were uneducated. A lot of our young men, that's why I do spend time actually working with young men, trying to get them to understand that some of the things that were acceptable back in the day are no longer acceptable now. You cannot go and embrace a girl without consent. And because the law is changing to favor us women, a lot of our men and young boys that are coming up, they need to be educated about that because the world is unforgiving. One failure is going to become your name for the rest of your life. Even if it was like a season of rebellion that we all go through, that becomes the lens through which everyone is going to view you. But one thing I love about God and I love about Jesus in this particular account, he never deals with humanity that way. Scripture tells us that man looks at the outward appearance, like I read before, 1 Samuel 16, 7, but God looks at the heart. Simon the Pharisee, he was looking at what everyone else can see, just like everyone else. He was seeing the sinful woman of Jesus. He was looking at what everyone else was missing. He was seeing a devoted woman who appreciated the mercy she had received. Then Jesus moved.

Gratitude Versus Entitlement After Mercy

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Moves on. If you look at verse 44, he begins to contrast and compare Simon the Pharisee, who was the owner of the home, who was hosting Jesus. His treatment of him, he began to compare it to the treatment that the woman gave him. And he said, Simon, when I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet. And now, if I'm to say it now in today's context, it doesn't make a lot of sense because we have sneakers, we have socks. In the ancient Near East, during that time, offering a guest water to wash their feet, it was a common courtesy because they wore sandals. They didn't have clothes shoes or socks or sneakers, and they didn't have roads, tarred roads. It was dusty everywhere. And washing one's feet when they got inside the house, it was actually a necessity. It was a practical necessity. And can you imagine Simon, this highly esteemed teacher of the word, the Pharisee, who is supposedly so learned, not only in common courtesies, but in the word, he neglects one of the most basic, basic actions of hospitality and respect. Let's say he didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but your guests were supposed to be offered this. It shows that maybe he didn't respect Jesus or he didn't honor him. But look at the woman that he considered to be a sinner. That's what Jesus was getting at. The woman, her actions are showing that, okay, I recognize because if you read the scripture, it says she only heard that Jesus was in Simon's house and immediately she prepared. But Simon, the one who was hosting, he didn't even bother to give Jesus this basic common courtesy. She wet his feet with her tears. I see an overflow. It was an overflow of repentance. How much would you have to cry for you to actually wet someone's feet? And she wasn't crying because she was seeking forgiveness. I believe even certain commentaries say they say this woman most likely had encountered Jesus before, or maybe she had been in the crowd when he was teaching and she felt like I'm worthy. And she went there to offer her deepest and her greatest gratitude to him. She was crying tears of gratitude, repentance, and tears of love. A lot of times, rarely do you cry because you're joyful, tears of joy. They're just little, you know, little baby tears. But this woman felt so overwhelmed with gratitude that her tears, the amount of tears that she shed were enough to wet Jesus' feet. Just think about that for a second. And look at Simon. He never even offered water for Jesus to wash his feet. And when Jesus told that parable, he wasn't only letting Simon and those that were present know that this woman loved much. But the contrast that he gave, he was showing that Simon, I think you love too little, because the basic courtesies you didn't even provide. Both of them, Simon the Pharisee and this woman, they needed forgiveness, both of them. They were both debtors according to Jesus. They were sinners, they were both in need of mercy. But look at the other one, the posture that she took. She understood it even better than Simon, the teacher of the word, the leader. She didn't forget where she came from. She didn't forget that I have been forgiven. She thought about all the things that she did, and she said, Master, you, as blameless as you are, you considered me. Her affection, according to Simon, was a little over the top, like you are ODing right now. That's basically what he was thinking. But according to Jesus, her worship was not excessive at all. Her affection was not too much, her devotion was not too much. It was proportional, not just to the number of sins that have been forgiven, but to her awareness. She was aware of it. How aware are you when you've been forgiven? Do you remind yourself from time to time and say, Wow, I cannot believe that after I told my friend's secret to the whole community, she still forgave me? Are you aware of the grace that has been extended to you? That I was supposed to have been expelled because I was caught cheating in an exam. How are you going to show your awareness of that grace? Are you aware that I was supposed to have been arrested for this, but the officer let me off with a warning? How do you walk after that? How do you respond? What is your posture after receiving mercy? Perhaps that's why Jesus says her many sins have been forgiven. Now I want us to continue dissecting this. I'm not going to go in too deep, but I want to share with you a few more lessons that I got from this that really blessed me and that really challenged me, not only as a believer, but in my own life as I live with people around me, as I live in relationship with people around me, as well as in my relationship with God. There's

Humility That Draws God’s Attention

SPEAKER_01 28:12

another detail that really stood out to me. I already mentioned earlier that women were not really, they were not really regarded. Women were some in some areas considered possessions. It was a patriarchy. Men were considered more. That's why even the feeding of the 5,000, they counted men. It was 5,000 men. But I'm sure there were more women and children there. It was just the culture of the time. And we still have a little bit of that going now, but it's nowhere near what it was back then. She entered into a house where there were men, not only men, they were leaders, and she didn't care. That's how courageous she was because she wanted to show gratitude. She wasn't going in there to ask for forgiveness. She was already behaving as if she's already got it. That was her faith. That's why Jesus said, It's your faith. It wasn't a private moment between her and Jesus. She walked into a room full of people, a room dominated by men, religious men. At that, she knew exactly what they thought of her because they knew her reputation. She knew all the whispers that followed her name, what people would say behind her back. And there are some wretched people. You know what they do? If they want to talk about you, they don't wait for you to leave. They try to whisper just loud enough so you can hear what they think of you. She knew the judgments that she would face. She knew it, but she still went ahead. Because she said, I want to show gratitude. And I've seen that a lot of people they make a fool out of themselves when they're trying to get the attention of someone that they admire. Like I remember this popular streamer, I think it was I Show Speed, when he was moving around Africa and he was doing his tours of different countries, even came to our country, and a lot of people were yelling, Speed, and they were trying to find out just where he was, and they didn't care. Like I'm making a fool out of myself on the internet, but I'm trying to get his attention. But after you get the recognition that you want, are you willing to make as much of a fool of yourself to share your gratitude and say, thank you for changing my life? A lot of people who went on his stream, their pages and their streams and their YouTube channels, they actually grew. There's actually one, I think, a clone, a guy who was inspired by him. I forget his name, but he gained a lot, a huge following because of the work that he did with Speed on his live streams. But my question to you is when you make a fool out of yourself to go and meet your icon, your idol, whatever you call them, your role model, can you make even a bigger fool of yourself of yourself to say, I just wanted to say thank you? That's what this woman did. She said, I don't care. I'm going to take this alabaster jar in front of all these men who are going to be judging me, and I don't care. Most people are willing to humble themselves when they want something. That's easy. But once you get it, are you going to remember? I remember the story, you know, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus. He yelled, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And people kept on saying, Stop. And he was not having it. He kept on yelling until Jesus said, Come. But I don't remember any other time where you heard of him yelling, saying, Jesus, thank you. Thank you, Jesus, thank you. We are willing to shout when we need something. I guess it's human nature. I don't want to hold it against anyone, but we're all learning. We're willing to shout when we need something because the human nature understands how to pursue help. We know how to look for help now. The human nature understands how to pursue favor. You would do anything. Think of a man who's trying to maybe get a girl for the first time, what he's going to do. He's going to buy her everything that she wants, surprise her at work, buy her, you know, meet her family, do all these things. How many people are willing to pursue someone with that same intensity to simply say, thank you. Thank you for what you did for me. And that's what makes this woman remarkable to me, even to Jesus. When I was reading this earlier, I said, Jesus turned towards the woman and he spoke to Simon. And I find that detail fascinating that the author actually wrote that, that Jesus turned to the woman, but he was talking to Simon. His attention, his focus was on this woman. Though he was talking to Simon, his words were directed to the Pharisee. But his gaze, his gaze rested on this woman who had shown remarkable gratitude. He was addressing a big, big religious leader, but look at his attention fixed on this little old sinner that they had nicknamed her to be. And I don't think it's an accidental thing that it was recorded in scripture. I always try to look at these little details. Her humility captured the attention of the Lord. While Simon was busy judging and evaluating and looking at this woman, with judgmental eyes, Jesus was looking at her. Others were focusing on her reputation. Jesus was focusing on her repentance. Let me tell you something. While you're busy judging someone that you know nothing about, God is seeing them. God is seeing them. Humility, you have no idea what true repentance, true gratitude can do. It can attract the attention of heaven. The Lord's face will shine on you. Even while he's talking to other people, his gaze will be on you. If you do whatever you can to be humble, if you put everything you have towards humility, I promise you. I want to see who can steal his gaze away from you. I'm actually reminded of this other scripture. It's in the Old Testament. But Elijah the prophet had gone and um and pronounced this terrible judgment on King Ahab, and he said, This is going to happen to you because of the heinous crimes and acts that you've committed and the witchcraft and the idolatry. This is going to be the fate of your children and your fate. But the scripture says Ahab humbled himself before God. He tore his clothes, he fasted, and he walked softly before the Lord. And what amazes me in God's response, immediately he went back to the prophet Elijah and he said, Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Even though this person was guilty of all these crimes, just that one act of humility he couldn't resist. He said, Have you seen that what that's what he said to the prophet Elijah? Out of everything happening in the nation, God noticed one man's humility. And that tells me something. It tells me something profound about the nature of God. Being humble. Being humble. When a person lowers themselves, I tell you, heaven is always going to notice. When a person abandons their pride, oh, I promise you, heaven is going to notice. Genuine repentance. So we are speaking about that forgotten side of forgiveness. Yes,

Rebuilding Trust Takes Time

SPEAKER_01 36:31

we teach people how to forgive. There's nothing wrong with that. But we rarely teach people how to behave when they are the ones that have received that forgiveness. We want to guilt people and weaponize their faith and say, Jesus said forgive 70 times seven times a day. But let me ask you this. Have you been forgiven? If so, did you appreciate the cost? Because there's always a cost to forgiveness. Did you honor the person that forgave you? Because that forgiveness did not come cheap. It did not come cheap. When you receive forgiveness, it needs to produce humility in you, not entitlement. I've seen a lot of people who wrong people and they say, Can't you just forgive me? Can't you get over it already? I'm tired of talking about this. But if you've been forgiven, I don't care how many times it is brought up, if you want to be in relationship with a person, your posture should always be that of forgiveness. I'm not saying subject yourself to emotional abuse where someone is telling you about all the negative things you've ever done. That's not what I'm saying. I am saying sometimes it should be you bringing up what you did before and say, I cannot believe after how I betrayed you five years ago, you took me back into your life. I appreciate you so much. I value you so much because of the mercy that you've shown me. That's the true posture of forgiveness. And you need to understand this. I've seen a lot of people make this mistake. Let's say someone says, Yes, I do, I forgive you. Maybe you used to go to their house every day. They used to invite you to teas and dinners and all these different events that happened. Now they don't call you as often. They don't respond to your, they don't respond to your texts as often. Maybe if you say I love you, they don't respond with I love you too. And then you feel like, uh, do you really forgive me? Why are you acting this way? But you need to understand that forgiveness is not an instant thing. It takes time, it takes a lot of patience, it takes a lot of healing. Just like physically, if you have a gash on your face, it's not going to heal overnight. If you break or fracture a bone, they're going to put a cast on you for some time. If you sprain something, it's going to take time. So give the people that same space to heal. Just like you would someone who is still healing, you'll give them as much space as they need. You don't badger them to do housework, you don't badger them to lift heavy items because you know they're still healing. So don't be demanding of people that are still emotionally healing from the hurt that you caused. Don't demand to be reinstated back into your old position in their lives. And I hate to break it to you, it may never happen that way. But let me tell you this: it has a greater chance of happening if you assume the posture that I explained to you that that sinful woman did. She went and she broke that alabaster jar. And you know one thing that I also thought of? They

Costly Gratitude, Healing, And Prayer

SPEAKER_01 40:05

said that the alabaster jar in itself, the container, was so expensive. And of course, it follows that the contents were also expensive. So it's an expensive container for expensive contents. So I'm thinking, because some commentaries say that the sinful woman, she was called the sinful woman because most likely she was one of the ladies of the night. And maybe she was known for wanting luxurious items. That's why she even had an alabaster jar. She liked her Gucci, she liked her dolce and gabbana. But you know, in her act of gratitude, she said, I've spent my whole life committing sin to get these luxurious items, but I'm going to come and throw it at your feet to show you that I don't care how much I love designer purses and bags, and I love this alabaster jar of perfume. I am going to pour it on your feet. I'm going to anoint you with it to show you that you mean more to me than any of these things that I've amassed with my sinful life. As the posture of gratitude, somebody, that is how you're supposed to behave when you really want to show someone that you appreciate their forgiveness. Sometimes when they take time to bring you back into their circle, into their inner peace, into their heart, it's not because they're bitter, but maybe they need more time to trust you, to gain their trust again. Or maybe it could be you have not shown enough gratitude. I want to tell you about this flower. I grew up with this flower. I don't know if it's the exact flower, but I know of this flower called the gazania flower or gazania flower. When it's in harsh conditions, maybe the weather is not so favorable, it's windy, it's cloudy, it's cold, the flower closes up almost like it never bloomed. But when now the sunlight and the warmth comes around, it blooms again, opens up. And there are people who are just like that flower. When they are hurt, they will close up like they never bloomed before. Not because they hate you, not because they think you're a horrible person, but it is a protective mechanism, a defense mechanism. They guard themselves, they protect themselves because maybe they were really devastated by what you did. So it's not because they're unforgiving, they are just protecting their peace. And in the same way, I want you to become the warmth that they need. Show them that I know that I did this to you before. I was critical of you, I treated you wrong, I took you for granted. But now look at the warmth that I'm giving you. Look at the love that I'm giving you. And before you know it, they're going to open up to you and they're going to bloom once more. Now let me pray for you. And I hope that this lesson has been so informative. It has been edifying to you as it has been for me. Father, in the name of Jesus, I want to thank you so much for teaching us on forgiveness, for showing us the posture of forgiveness, for taking your time to see even those that are downtrodden. Lord, I pray for everyone listening, whether they've been struggling to forgive or they've been struggling to mend broken relationships that they took part in breaking. I pray that this lesson convicts them and equips them to salvage those broken relationships. Thank you so much, and we love you so much. Amen. Now, thank you so much for listening. If you found this lesson helpful, please share it with someone who needs it. If you're a new follower, a new listener, take time to subscribe and click the notification bell. If you're listening to us and on any of our podcasting platforms, please follow us. Share with your friends and family because the more you share, the more it's going to be recommended to more people. Now, this has been the Light of Life Podcast, and as usual, stay in the light.