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Forgiveness Pays a Bonus

Manny1 is the kind of prisoner for whom I ache most: socially awkward, defenseless, and essentially a loner, not necessarily because he wants to be, but because society has relegated him to its farthest margins—an outcast of the outcast. When he approached me at a weekly Kairos gathering at the prison one evening, I was happy to engage, but it was when he began to talk about forgiveness that he captured my rapt attention. Manny recalled a season when two inmates oppressed him—he didn’t say how and I didn’t ask. Life was miserable in this way, but he sensed God telling him, “You must forgive them.” So, Manny obeyed. “When I forgave them,” he recalled, “it was like this several-hundred-pound weight just lifted from my chest. I no longer hold anything against them.” His few friends in lockup were incredulous: “Why did you forgive them?” “God told me to,” replied this forgotten man who humbly believed and did as he was told. How like God, to choose the incarcerated as testimony to inner freedom.

We’ve all witnessed grudges nursed for far lesser offenses. Have you ever heard someone say, “God might forgive them, but I won’t”? Have we ever said it—or something like it—ourselves, whether silently or aloud? God says it’s not OK. To His audience on the hillside, Jesus taught, “If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”2 Give grace, receive grace. Then to the Ephesians—and vital for believers everywhere and of all times—Paul writes, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”3 Receive grace, give grace.

Forgiveness is a response of obedience taken in faith, regardless of feeling. And here’s the thing: Forgiveness always pays a bonus. For when from the heart we truly release others from their moral debt to us, our ensuing burden—the guilt and weight of our unforgiveness—is lifted as well. And whether we forgive seven times or seventy-seven,4 each time we are surprised by the peace and joy of releasing “a burden too heavy to bear.”5

So may this from Paul be the inclination of our hearts redeemed: “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”6

Manny did, and he’s still talking about it.

Father, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.7 In Christ we live and in Him we pray. Amen.

1 This name is changed for privacy purposes.
2 Matthew 6:14-15 NIV
3 Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV
4 Matthew 18:21-22 NIV
5 Psalm 38:4 NLT
6 Colossians 3:13 NLT
7 Matthew 6:12 KJV

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How Obedience Overcomes Reluctance

I sometimes quip about my wife, “Peggy’s not happy if she’s not helping.” Peggy is ever ready to come to one’s aid, and she can detect an SOS a mile away. I, on the other hand . . . well, let’s just say I’m less inclined to offer my services, which I confess is an outcropping of my sin nature. There was an era, for instance, when after Adult Sunday School, the teacher would ask for volunteers to stay after class and stack the chairs onto their wheeled dollies. Our ensuing conversation would go like this:

Peggy: “Let’s stay and stack chairs.”
Paul: “I don’t want to stay and stack chairs. They have enough help already.”

Then we’d stay and stack chairs.

Yet over time, I began to enjoy helping people. Could it be I received the spiritual gift of “helps”1 by marriage? Kidding aside, I am grateful for the ongoing transformation from passive indifference to active care. This is God’s doing.

It is also His will — that learning would lead to action, and faith engender obedience. Writing to Roman believers, Paul both began and closed his letter by noting our summons to “the obedience that comes from faith.”2 The apostle likewise taught the Ephesians that we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”3 Good works, then, are also gifts —meaningful things we get to do for Kingdom glory — and doing them is the natural offshoot of true belief.

But what if most deeply we are reluctant to act in obedience? Most likely, we are. First, don’t be surprised at the dissonance within, for “the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other.”4 The battle is a fact; accept it. Knowing this, watch out for temptations that tantalize our flesh, our sin nature. Peter exhorts God’s people, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil,”5 who would entice us to elevate self above all else. Then when tempted, choose rightly. We will either be “slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness,”6 so today when you hear the Spirit’s voice, choose “yes.” And all the while, trust God’s transformational work in your life: “Rest assured it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”7 He is pleased to transform us, even our reluctance. He will do it, so rejoice. And do what He leads you to do.

“You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” — Galatians 5:13 ESV

Father, thank You for Your opportunities to serve You, the impactful works You prepare for us in advance. Strengthen us to pursue them in great joy. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 See 1 Corinthians 12:28 NIV.
2 Romans 1:5 NIV; Romans 16:26 NIV
3 Ephesians 2:10 NIV
4 Galatians 5:17 NIV
5 1 Peter 5:8 NLT
6 Romans 6:16 NIV
7 Philippians 2:13 ESV

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Testimony: A Double Healing

“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” — Psalm 9:1 NIV

For most of my life, prayer for healing — anyone’s healing — was conflicting for me. I believed in miraculous healing; I had witnessed some and knew of others, so I could not deny it. Yet the fact remained that, when as a seven-year-old boy I prayed for my dying father, his sudden heart attack took his life that day. Thereafter, prayers for healing stirred dissonance within. But this is changing. Here’s how.

Early last December, I awoke in the middle of the night with a frightening sensation: the bedroom seemed aslant and uncontrollably spinning counterclockwise. It was like riding the Tilt-a-Whirl at the county fair, involuntarily. My doctor diagnosed vertigo and referred me for physical therapy. Over the next two months, therapists tried unsuccessfully to correct the problem through the Epley maneuver — moving my head through a pattern of positions to clear from my inner ear loops the calcium carbonate crystals that weren’t supposed to be there. One therapist said I was only the second person she could not “clear.” I thanked her for all her help, and resigned myself to living with vertigo.

“And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” — Isaiah 30:21 ESV

One or two weeks later, I heard these words, inaudible yet as clear as any tongue could speak: “We are going to do this together — you and Me.” Now to this point only the therapists and my wife, Peggy, had guided me through the Epley maneuver (perhaps 50 times or so), but here was God, calling me to trust Him and to act with Him. My response this time was different: I’d always known God could heal, but this time I felt a surrendering closeness to Him and an inner knowledge that He would act. Then as we together put me through the maneuver one more time, I knew something was happening, that crystals were indeed moving through and out of my inner ear loops, so essential for balance. Then I waited. Minutes. Hours. Days. Now months. No crystals; no vertigo. Praise the I AM, I am healed.

Yet it seems another healing is happening, too, a healing in the soul: an acquiescence to God’s sovereignty and the forfeiture of mine; the acceptance of God’s will and the submission of mine; and the assurance of God’s love, the resting place of my own. I share this with you as a testimony of God’s love and power. He hears you. He cares for you. He will act in His time.

“LORD my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me.”1 You are “the Lord, [our] healer.”2 To You be all glory and praise. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Psalm 30:2 ESV
2 Exodus 15:26 ESV