Thursday, June 6 ~ My heavenly Father will also deal with you in the same way if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.​—Matt. 18:35.

[GrumpysWife]

Thursday, June 6

My heavenly Father will also deal with you in the same way if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.—Matt. 18:35.

 

We promote unity by freely forgiving others. When we forgive those who have offended us, we show that we appreciate the forgiveness of our own sins made possible by Christ’s ransom sacrifice. Consider one of Jesus’ illustrations as recorded at Matthew 18:23-34. Ask yourself: ‘Am I moved to apply what Jesus taught? Do I show patience and understanding to my fellow servants? Am I ready to forgive those who sin against me personally?’ Granted, there are degrees of sin, and some offenses are very hard for imperfect humans to forgive. Yet, this illustration teaches us what Jehovah expects. Jesus makes it clear that Jehovah will not forgive us if we do not forgive our brothers when there is a sound basis for doing so. What a sobering thought! We protect and preserve our precious unity when we forgive others as Jesus taught us to do. w18.01 15 ¶12

[McKay]

18 hours ago, GrumpysWife said:

Do I show patience and understanding to my fellow servants? Am I ready to forgive those who sin against me personally?’

This can be a real challenge. Particularly when someone with little information about a person or situation seems to have almost dogmatic opinions about it. I hardly ever feel understood because people are so quick to voice their uninformed opinions instead of trying to understand me for who I am. When this happens day after day, it can wear on us and make it difficult to forgive these people.

 

However, it's not my job to change opinionated people. It's my job to forgive them when they say something stupid. Sure, they should be applying 1 Thess 4:11 (Mind your own business) but getting hung up on what THEY should be doing instead of what I should be doing isn't going to make anything better. The best thing is just forgive them and let Jehovah straighten matters out in His due time.

[Tortuga]

On 6/5/2019 at 1:16 PM, GrumpysWife said:

We promote unity by freely forgiving others.

Freely forgiving others from the heart with no strings attached can be difficult, however every time we do it right, we are learning the mind and love of Jehovah.