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beautyissubjective · 11 months ago

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How Do I Know Jesus? ~ Series Part 1

Forgiveness. What does it mean to you?

When I think of forgiveness, I think of how little children get in fights ALL THE TIME. A brother and a sister, two little classmates in elementary school, a group of cousins playing in the backyard. Anything can start an argument; Toys, candy, sharing, or simply being tired and grumpy. But time passes, and soon enough you see the kids playing on a swing set together, or giggling while watching one of their favorite cartoons, as if nothing ever happened- until the next argument, of course! And the cycle continues. How do we, even as children, find a way to forget the things we were once so angry or sad with someone about? Is forgiveness just taking in enough distractions to make you forget about the way you once felt? Or is it something more? To find out, we have to first discover the meaning of forgiveness in the first place, in the bible. The bible is God's thoughts, words, and teachings. I once saw it described as "The only book in existence where the author is in love with the reader." It's where we should look for help and guidance, because it's coming from the mouth of the creator of everything, Himself.

There are many verses in the bible about forgiveness. One of these is Colossians 3:13, where it says: "Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." "Forgive as the Lord Forgave you."

The reason why we forgive, is because God does. We are made in his image, which means we feel our emotions similarly to how he does. So, what exactly did he forgive us for?

It can feel a little complicated, but it's not as convoluted as you might think. Basically, when God created this whole universe, with it's planets and trees and little fish swimming through the ocean, he made it perfect for Adam and Eve. He gave them a variety of foods to eat and a beautiful home to live in. They were naked but felt no shame for it at all, and everything was absolutely perfect! I mean imagine it, you are placed in a beautiful paradise filled with trees and plants and animals made just for you, and to top it all off, God gives you your perfect match to be your companion in paradise forever, where you will build a family together and be happy. This is what he wanted to give us. There was only one rule he gave to Adam and Eve. God said to them, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." We all know how good that went.

You may ask, "Well, if God knows everything, and he knew that they were going to eat the fruit, then why would he put the tree there in the first place?"

Have you ever been in a situation with a parent/guardian where they ask you to do something, like, for instance, grabbing them a utensil they need for cooking, or getting something they need from another room. In your mind you may think, "Can't they just do it themselves? It's right there!" But that's not the point. The point is, you are obeying this person because you love and respect them. I think it's a similar thing: God asked Adam and Eve to do something out of respect and love and gratitude for him, but instead they let him down and disobeyed his only command.

So Adam and Eve disobeyed God and then hid from Him, making Him very angry. But what is it that made Eve decide to take a bite of that fruit in the first place? She knew it was wrong- God told her not to. Did she just decide to disobey God for no reason? Of course not. Eve was not rebellious or trying to hurt God. She was tempted. The devil, in the form of a snake, came to Eve and asked her about God's rule regarding the tree. He tricked her, telling her that the fruit would "open her eyes and make her like God". With his enticing words, the fruit suddenly seemed almost irresistible to Eve. It looked delicious, and it promised to make her wise, so she fell for it. She ate the fruit and gave some to Adam too, and he also ate. This is how sin was born into the world, through temptation. Does that sound familiar?

Imagine a happily married man, with two little daughters and a gorgeous wife. He has everything he could ever dream of for his life- Health, fortune, happiness. And yet, he goes out with his friends one night to a bar, just for a couple drinks. A beautiful woman approaches him from across the room, and soon enough she is spending the whole night flirting with him and making him feel special. Eventually all the man's friends leave, and it's just him left with this beautiful woman, and suddenly he has forgotten about his daughters and gorgeous wife, and all he can think about is the irresistible woman in front of him, and he ends up having sex with her, cheating on his wife.

Sound familiar?

Or, a teenage girl gets in a huge blowout fight with her good friend. They trade shouts at each other, and her anger starts boiling to the point of no return, and suddenly she wants to scream the nastiest name she can think of at her, that she knows would break her, because she just knows that saying it would feel so good and satisfying.

Familiar, at all?

Or, a young woman who has dreamed of having a purple smart watch all her life meets someone who actually has one. One day, this person leaves their smart watch on a table, and she knows if she took it, that person would probably not notice and she could have it for herself. She feels an almost irresistible need to grab it and take it for herself.

Is this sounding familiar yet?

We are tempted to break God's rules every single day of our lives. Sometimes with big things, sometimes with really small things that seem like they don't even matter, like flipping someone off in traffic because they had cut you off down the street. The point is, there is an enemy who will stop at nothing to tear us away from God, and each other, and keep us in sin. He did it with Adam and Eve, and he is still doing it now. But God is smarter, and He knows us deeply. The bible even says "I the Lord test the heart and search the mind..." He searches us thoroughly, and he knows us completely, unlike the devil. So he knows, although you have cheated on your wife, or called someone the worst names you could possibly think of, or stolen from an innocent person, that you are still his child, and if you come to Him, He will always forgive you. One of Jesus' disciples, Peter, asked Him, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus then answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy seven times."

Now, this is not to say that you should be a pushover, someone that immediately forgives someone when they have wronged you. I mean God certainly is no pushover. God says if someone sins against you, rebuke them, (which means to express sharp disapproval or criticism) but if they repent and apologize, to forgive them. It is the same with God. He obviously doesn't like it when we don't obey him, but if we come to him and apologize, he will forgive us.

So, what have we learned about forgiveness so far? - We forgive because God forgives, and we are made in his likeness - We all fall short of God's commands and break his rules (we sin) - We are tempted to sin by the devil, and temptation is what caused sin in the first place - God knows us deeply and searches our hearts - God will show us mercy and forgive us if we come to him

So, God must've been pretty peeved when the first people He created gave in to sin so easily. And He was probably pretty peeved when it just kept getting worse...and worse...and worse...and...uh, yeah I think it might be reasonable to guess that God got pretty frustrated with humanity. Like when there's an adorable hamster in front of you and all you want to do is hold it and cuddle it but every time you try, it attempts to bite your finger off. We've been biting God's finger since the beginning of time. We still can't follow the rules, and it seems to be getting worse, harder to resist the temptations the world is constantly throwing at us. Part of this is because of how "normal" it has become to reject God's plans and rules. To admit to being a Christian in this age is almost scary, because you know that people are going to judge you for it. I think this causes a lot of people to just give up on their beliefs altogether and instead live a life in the world that feels a lot easier and less complicated. But the bible speaks of a "narrow path" in Matthew 7:13-14. It says:

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Living a life attempting to follow God's rules can make you seem odd to the rest of the world. It's a narrow, difficult, and sometimes lonely road, especially since no human being has ever made it through this life without sin, except for Jesus. But the narrow road leads to true happiness, love, and peace. This is very hard to do though in this world, where bad things become more normalized and tempting every day. Like I said, we're little hamsters constantly biting at God's finger. So what can we do? It's impossible to live the life that God wants us to, so what's the point? We can't be perfect. God knows this, so he made a solution:

Drumroll...Jesus!

In the early years, way before Jesus, people would make sacrifices to God to repent for their sins. They would kill an innocent animal, like a lamb, and use the shedding of the animal's blood as a sacrifice to God for their sins. It's interesting that they did this, because it is exactly what Jesus did for us. We cannot live a pure life without breaking God's rules, so God sent Jesus, who was perfect. Jesus never sinned once in his life. He was completely innocent, just like a lamb, and he was killed as a sacrifice for us, so that our sins could be washed away and we could be with God again. It's hard to comprehend, how much he loves us. Remember how peeved he was? That same God that was so frustrated with humanity sent his only son, Jesus, to die then rise again for a planet full of ungrateful children. That's why we drink wine/grape juice and eat bread for communion. It is saying thank you, and a remembrance of how he gave his life, his blood and his body for us, and how it makes us free. We are no longer slaves to sin, it can't control us because as long as we believe in Jesus, we are free. That's the only rule left.

So, that brings us to the topic of being angry, not with somebody else, but yourself. Remember the words from before? Don't be a pushover who always forgives, if someone wrongs you, rebuke them, but if they come to you and apologize, forgive them. It can be really difficult to do this with ourselves. First I'll give an example between two people:

Imagine two best friends. The two have been relentlessly fighting for months. They are both exhausted and sick of arguing, but they can't seem to get along. Every time they talk it seems, it ends in another fight. So eventually they stop talking altogether, and they don't speak for months. Both of them have anger for the other and aren't sure they want to talk again, or if they'd even be in their lives anymore. But a holiday is coming up, called Best Friend's Day. For some reason, something in both girls' hearts makes them put together a little box full of gifts for their best friend, even though neither is sure they are best friends anymore. They both send the packages off, having no idea the other was doing it. This causes them to talk again, catch up, and start the process of forgiving each other. Why did both girls send the packages? There was still anger there, there was still uncertainty, so what was it that made them still want to try?

Love. And that's what forgiveness is.

Forgiveness is sending a box to someone you care about even though you're not sure it will help anything, because you love them. It's giving your life to save all these ungrateful people and giving them a fighting chance, because you love them. It's not giving up on a planet full of ungrateful people who never listen to you, because you love them. God constantly forgives, because he loves.

And the bible says, "God is love"!

So, what about forgiving ourselves? You first have to know who you are, and what was done for you. Truly understand it and grasp it. You have been made free by Jesus. It says, "By his stripes we are healed." and this is true. Anything you think is too hard to forgive that you have done, if you think you are a problem or you mess everything up or you just can't make everyone happy and you get mad at yourself, remember you are already forgiven by what Jesus did. Everyone makes mistakes. If you feel you've truly messed up, come to God and tell him you're sorry, and he will forgive you, because he loves you. <3

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