Daily Devotional #1,557

I loved the movie “Apollo 13” …the Apollo mission that suffered an explosion on its way to the moon. The three astronauts did what they could in the space capsule, but it was the people on the ground who had to come up with a way to get them back alive. In the movie, they have the Flight Director telling a whole room of engineers that they had to find a way to get them back and that “failure was not an option”! They did it and found a way to bring the astronauts home. For us as followers of Jesus, we are faced with the same command from our “flight director”, this Jesus of the Bible. He tells us that we who have received the forgiveness of our heavenly Father are to forgive those who sin against us. And this is not an option…it is a command. We are even told that if we refuse to forgive others…then our heavenly Father will not forgive our sins. That is a hard scripture. But we need to remember that as followers of Jesus we constantly come to God for confession and forgiveness to repair our relationship. And when we refuse to forgive others we demonstrate that we have a lack of appreciation for the mercy that God has freely given to us. We are all sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. And when we decide that we have an option to not forgive, we are, by our attitude and action, denying and rejecting God’s forgiveness of us. Forgiveness can be so very hard. But we need to remember that what we forgive in this life is so miniscule compared to what God has done for us. When it comes to forgiving others…failure is not an option! God will give you what you need to do that…you just need to choose to love like you and I have been loved and forgiven by God.

 Here’s our Bible verse for today…

Matthew 6:14-15 NLT “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. (15) But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Remember I’m praying for you!
PJ