Reading
SAA Notes
Jesus has some searching words to day about children, relatives and the cultivation of mercy towards those closest to us. We are apt to have a short fuse with all three.
SJA Notes
* God Above, please write Your word on our hearts today, that we might not sin against You.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
How hard for us is practice of rebuke and discipline.
How hard it is to get right, judging fault in others.
Forgiveness is tightly bound up in these acts of rebuke and discipline.
Because. How much have we ourselves been forgiven?
In this parable Jesus tells, we can read the protocols, the principles, that He wants us to understand.
We can be very quick to judge, to want to be in judgement over others, in seeing someone else’s sin. And that quickness can often lead us into sin ourselves.
Do we really think anything someone does to us can ever compare to our own sin before the Holy God?
Are we so quick to forget or not grasp the wonderful mercy that brought about the terrible price that Jesus paid?
A heart of forgiveness and mercy needs to be foremost in any action of rebuke or discipline.
* Father God,
Please forgive us Lord.
We can think to judge another, to call out sin and wrongdoing, and forget Your great mercy to us.
You are faithful and Your love is steadfast.
Hallelujah Lord, what a God You are!
Amen.