Summer Devotionals - wk 4

Our Summer Sermon Series and Summer Bible Reading Plan will walk together through some of the foundational practices and invitations of the Christian life: following Jesus, loving our neighbor, forgiveness, generosity, prayer, peace, community, gratitude, and more. This isn’t about adding more pressure or more “religious homework” to your life. It’s about creating just enough space for Jesus to meet us in the middle of our everyday lives.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

My friends, this summer for our Back to the Basics Bible reading plan, we're not asking you to do more. We're inviting you to do what matters most and to create a little bit of room for Jesus to do some work in your life. Last few weeks we've talked about what it means to follow Christ, to experience and share the love of Christ. And this week, we talk about a word that is difficult for me sometimes, not only to practice, but to receive, and I'm confident difficult for all of you, forgiveness. Practicing forgiveness, forgiving ourselves, forgiving others. It's hard. This is where faith gets messy. In Psalm 103, we read these words as far as the East is from the West, so God removes our transgressions from us. As a parent has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who love him. Many of you have heard the stories of my parents. I had a difficult relationship with my father. And for many years I resented him and I refused to forgive wrongs that he done to me, to my mother, to my brother, to my sister. Someone once said during that time that uh curing resentment is like curing a backpack full of rocks. Eventually it just wears you down and nobody else. And that happened to me. And so, by the gift of the Holy Spirit and some great brothers who didn't let me off the hook, I eventually sat down with my dad and I forgave him. And it was hard, but it was also holy, and it shaped something within me because it made me a better follower of Jesus because I was able to understand just how much my God loves me. Because, church, I screw up a bunch. Not as much as I used to, but enough. And I have a God who forgives daily, a God who understands our human condition and loves us, anyways, and a God who says, You are now to be about that work. Doing your best to forgive like me, to love like me. And so I hope the readings this week spur something in you. If there's a conversation you've been dreading or putting off or ignoring, I pray the Holy Spirit challenges you and encourages you and gifts you for that conversation. There is great power in forgiveness. So, as always, when you read these scriptures, I pray you're looking for new things to notice, for new ways to be shaped, and for new ways to share the good news of Jesus Christ in your daily life. Love and peace.