Forgive Lately?

Proverbs 3:3

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

Deuteronomy 6:5-6

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

 The Lord gave me these verses this week during my Bible reading. It's so amazing how God gives you what you need in your life whether it's through a message, an encouragement from a friend or your husband, or the Bible. Jared spoke on forgiveness last night and I knew that with these verses the Lord was preparing my heart for last night's message. The Bible says to love the Lord with your whole heart and to write steadfast love and faithfulness on it. Seems so easy to say: "Oh yeah, I love the Lord with my whole heart..." Then the Lord brought the following question to my mind: How can I be following this command if my heart has bitterness and resentment in it? I can't be. Ouch. I know that for me it's so easy to justify the bitterness and resentment when it's from others wrongdoing. But the Lord isn't saying here that it's ok to share bitterness with love in my heart. He is saying my heart should be filled and written with love for Him. If I am loving the Lord with my whole might, I will have no room in it for bitterness and resentment. I need to forgive in order to rid myself of bitterness and resentment. Jared shared this quote last night from C.S. Lewis: "Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive." I can easily SAY : I forgive you or them, but to make it a heart change is so hard!  Jared also said forgiveness is a constant behavior. I am not just automatically "cured" of this resentment and bitterness, because I prayed a prayer. But asking the Lord to rid me of it, forgiving those that have wronged me, and searching and changing my heart is making the right steps to ridding myself of it. This forgiveness thing needs to be constant in my life. Taking the verses and message from last night, I searched my heart. I asked the Lord to rid me of resentment and to fill my heart with love for Him.I hope these verses and sermon notes are an encouragement to you as they were to me.
Thanks for reading! -AGM

Sermon Notes:
Radical Forgiveness

1. Forgiveness is truly a Christian virtue (Luke 6:37; 1 Peter 4:8; Luke 23:34)

2. Forgiveness is difficult because we do not understand it properly...
What forgiveness is not....
Justifying evil
Overlooking Abuse
Restoring relationships
(There was a lot more but I didn't get them all)

What forgiveness is....
A matter of the heart
Constant behavior
(Matthew 18:21-35)

Final Thoughts:
Forgiveness is not an option for Christians.
We will forgive to the extent we appreciate how much we have been forgiven.-wow!