A Union of Two Forgivers
Shereen and I have been married for over six years now. One of my favourite marriage quotes, something that I'll share when I do marriage prep with couples, is this by Ruth Graham, the wife of Billy Graham: "Marriage is a union of two forgivers."
That's a great quote because it's true. And I hope and pray that you who are married listening to this have such a union - one of two forgivers.
Here's what I've come to believe. The Christian faith is also a union of two forgivers. The Christian faith is all about a relationship with God, and if you want your relationship with God to work, it has to be a union of two forgivers: God forgives us, and because of that, we become the type of people who forgive others. A union of two forgivers.
Living with Open Hands
I think it's true that one of the biggest blocks of peace and the serenity of our souls that we could have is a lack of forgiveness. Or to state it another way, one of the most powerful paths to peace or serenity is to form a union of two forgivers with God - to live a life with deep, deep levels of forgiveness coming to you and going out from you.
Jesus Himself spoke about this many times in His ministry, and probably most powerfully in Matthew 18, where Peter asks Him, "How many times must I forgive somebody who sins against me? Maybe seven times?" And Jesus said, "No, not seven but seventy-seven times," or seventy times seven.
And then He tells the story about a king who wants to settle accounts with his servants, and a man who owes him 10,000 bags of gold comes in, and the king orders that his wife and children be sold to repay the debt.
But the servant falls on his knees: "Be patient with me," he says, "I'll pay back everything." And so the man takes pity on him and cancels the debt.
The Danger of Withheld Mercy
But then the servant goes out and finds somebody who owes him a few hundred silver coins and grabs him and chokes him and says, "Pay back what you owe me." And his servant falls on his knees and says, "Be patient with me, I'll pay it back."
But he refuses and has the man thrown into prison. And when the other servants saw this, they go and tell the big master everything. And so he calls that man back and says, "I cancelled your debt, but you didn't cancel your fellow servant's," and he retracts the forgiveness that he gave the man.
And then Jesus says these haunting words: "This is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart."
The Path to Peace
And so, could it be, friends, that you are lacking peace or serenity because unforgiveness is blocking the way? Forgiveness is at the very heart of what it means to follow Jesus. Form a union of two forgivers - receive God's forgiveness for you and let forgiveness flow from you to others every day.
