By Sheryl Boldt
How many times have you regretted your rude or thoughtless behavior? How does it affect your relationships when your actions don’t reflect your Savior?
What if the person you offended quickly offered you forgiveness and grace? Would their act of grace toward you change the outcome? Likewise, those who are rude and thoughtless toward us might also benefit if we were quicker to offer mercy to them, rather than holding onto our grudges.
Let’s ask God to help us practice this week’s verse as often as we’d want others to practice it with us. Ephesians 4:32 (ESV) says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
What if the person who hurt us quickly regretted their actions? Have we not acted in a less than Christ-like way to someone, but due to our pride or shame, never found the courage to make it right?
What would happen if we viewed those who hurt us as imperfect but good-willed people? The way we desperately need others to see us.
This week, as we meditate on Ephesians 4:32, let’s ask God to help us remember the times He has forgiven our faults – and to help us be as longsuffering and merciful toward others as He is with us. Can you think of a better way to help those who have hurt us begin to heal from their own regretful behavior? Can you think of a more honoring way to begin reconciliation than by choosing grace?
The more we thank God for His endless grace and mercy, the more we’re able to reflect our identity in Him with those we share life with. Let’s aim to do this well. Let’s seek to destroy the enemy’s plan to keep us from experiencing a better, more Christ-like way of living.
I’m in absolute awe of how much God loves me – even on my worst days. His love makes me want to love others better – even on their worst days.
Let’s pray:
Father, thank You for Your endless mercy toward me. I pray that Your love for (and in) me will compel me to forgive others the same way You forgive me. Amen.
Sheryl H. Boldt writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. Her weekly devotions have appeared in newspapers across the South since 2014. She is also the author of the blog, www.TodayCanBeDifferent.net. Connect with her at [email protected].
