How Many Times
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21-22
There are a couple of relationships in my life that continue to fall into a less than positive pattern. Things go well for awhile and then they get stale, to put it tactfully and that brings difficulty and hurt feelings. In praying about one of them today I realized how much God puts up with in having relationships with us.
On any given day I can be totally devoted to Him at one point and fairly ignorant of Him in the next section of the day. Although it may not be the first image that comes to mind when you hear or see the word ignorant, one of the synonyms for it is unaware. I think that fits what I’m talking about perfectly. It isn’t that I don’t love God or appreciate Him. It is that in certain moments I am unaware of Him and the worst of those is when I choose to ignore Him, a synonym for that verb being discount. Look at it that way for a minute, we can choose to discount the creator of the universe, the being who chose not to discount, ignore or be unaware of us, but instead sent His only Son to provide us with a way out of the debacles of our own making.
My feelings get hurt in the relationship scenarios that I outlined for you. Then my hopes get raised because it looks as if things will truly be different this time. Then they get dashed, then raised, then dashed, in a cycle you’d think I’d give up but I won’t. The truth is the other people in those relationships are too important to me. Sometimes I feel foolish for not giving up. Today I don’t. Yes, I know there is potential for hurt and honestly, contrary to what should happen, I should get desensitized and not feel it as much, each time it hurts a bit more. I know that seems masochistic. Why keep going back for more? It’s the if you always do what you always did thing, right? In a sense it is and I do berate myself at times for trying again. Or at least I did, until today when I realized that more times than I can even imagine a number, God does just that.
We are to follow as closely as we can, the example of our Father in terms of love and forgiveness. How many times should I forgive my brother? Not seven times but seventy-seven times and some Biblical scholars say that that means in one day! The King James says seventy times seven. What if that’s in a day? The point is we forgive and if we want a relationship we let it go. That may mean that each hurt feels like the first one and so has more sting but that doesn’t matter. Every day my Father forgives me countless times. My perfect Father who has never once been lax in our relationship forgives me for ignoring Him or worse. Since that is true who I am to do any different.
From a worldly view my attitude may seem self-defeating or foolish but I don’t really care about the world view. Every time I give another person one more chance, truly forgiving the past offenses I imitate my Father. The hurts still hurt and I’m sure that won’t change. I do know that my heartbreaks are miniscule compared to the pain caused to the Almighty One which means He understands my pain completely and is always there to walk beside me and comfort me.
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21-22
There are a couple of relationships in my life that continue to fall into a less than positive pattern. Things go well for awhile and then they get stale, to put it tactfully and that brings difficulty and hurt feelings. In praying about one of them today I realized how much God puts up with in having relationships with us.
On any given day I can be totally devoted to Him at one point and fairly ignorant of Him in the next section of the day. Although it may not be the first image that comes to mind when you hear or see the word ignorant, one of the synonyms for it is unaware. I think that fits what I’m talking about perfectly. It isn’t that I don’t love God or appreciate Him. It is that in certain moments I am unaware of Him and the worst of those is when I choose to ignore Him, a synonym for that verb being discount. Look at it that way for a minute, we can choose to discount the creator of the universe, the being who chose not to discount, ignore or be unaware of us, but instead sent His only Son to provide us with a way out of the debacles of our own making.
My feelings get hurt in the relationship scenarios that I outlined for you. Then my hopes get raised because it looks as if things will truly be different this time. Then they get dashed, then raised, then dashed, in a cycle you’d think I’d give up but I won’t. The truth is the other people in those relationships are too important to me. Sometimes I feel foolish for not giving up. Today I don’t. Yes, I know there is potential for hurt and honestly, contrary to what should happen, I should get desensitized and not feel it as much, each time it hurts a bit more. I know that seems masochistic. Why keep going back for more? It’s the if you always do what you always did thing, right? In a sense it is and I do berate myself at times for trying again. Or at least I did, until today when I realized that more times than I can even imagine a number, God does just that.
We are to follow as closely as we can, the example of our Father in terms of love and forgiveness. How many times should I forgive my brother? Not seven times but seventy-seven times and some Biblical scholars say that that means in one day! The King James says seventy times seven. What if that’s in a day? The point is we forgive and if we want a relationship we let it go. That may mean that each hurt feels like the first one and so has more sting but that doesn’t matter. Every day my Father forgives me countless times. My perfect Father who has never once been lax in our relationship forgives me for ignoring Him or worse. Since that is true who I am to do any different.
From a worldly view my attitude may seem self-defeating or foolish but I don’t really care about the world view. Every time I give another person one more chance, truly forgiving the past offenses I imitate my Father. The hurts still hurt and I’m sure that won’t change. I do know that my heartbreaks are miniscule compared to the pain caused to the Almighty One which means He understands my pain completely and is always there to walk beside me and comfort me.
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