How Many Times
How Many Times
Matthew 18: 21-22 ESV
Rev. Deborah Rozier
So, as I read the scripture and used my Hermeneutical Imagination on How Many Times Should I Forgive someone? Seven times? God said seventy times seven! So, that is 490 times! That is a lot! So, to show you what great lengths I go through to provide you with detailed information, I started the stopwatch on my phone, while I counted up to 490. It took 3:01 minutes. 3:01 minutes x 60 seconds in a minute = 180.6 seconds. 490 divided by 180.6 = 2.71 “forgives” per second! I’m pretty sure I don’t know anyone who would do me harm 490 times a day, much less once every 2.71 seconds!
But remember, forgiving others is our response to God’s forgiveness. We forgive because God has forgiven us and to forgive is to be like Him. He paid the price for our forgiveness by His death on the cross. Our response to such forgiveness can only be to “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave us”. (Ephesians 4:32)
We forgive because we have been forgiven much. God has forgiven us and demands we forgive one another. By forgiving we understand more fully the cost of our forgiveness and the need to stop erecting barriers of resentment, hate or revenge between God and us. Forgiveness is for our own good. God forgave us all our sin, so we also need to be ready to forgive every sin and not keep count. No matter how often someone sins against us we are to continue forgiving, not seven times but seventy-seven times. And that means over and over and over again.
Prayer: Dear God, give us exactly what we need for that day. Because we know we just have to trust you to provide and go out and gather it. So, as we choose to forgive seventy times seven, you are faithful to help us with it each and every day. It comes down to, would we rather be right, or right with God? We are all struggling with something, and the world does not revolve around us and our problems. So, we need to make an effort to be aware of that and forgive others so that when we screw up, we could hope for the same mercy from them. Treat others as we want to be treated. Then we closer to the ideal of 490, completed spiritual perfection. In Jesus’ Name I Pray Amen.
Matthew 18: 21-22 ESV
Rev. Deborah Rozier
So, as I read the scripture and used my Hermeneutical Imagination on How Many Times Should I Forgive someone? Seven times? God said seventy times seven! So, that is 490 times! That is a lot! So, to show you what great lengths I go through to provide you with detailed information, I started the stopwatch on my phone, while I counted up to 490. It took 3:01 minutes. 3:01 minutes x 60 seconds in a minute = 180.6 seconds. 490 divided by 180.6 = 2.71 “forgives” per second! I’m pretty sure I don’t know anyone who would do me harm 490 times a day, much less once every 2.71 seconds!
But remember, forgiving others is our response to God’s forgiveness. We forgive because God has forgiven us and to forgive is to be like Him. He paid the price for our forgiveness by His death on the cross. Our response to such forgiveness can only be to “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave us”. (Ephesians 4:32)
We forgive because we have been forgiven much. God has forgiven us and demands we forgive one another. By forgiving we understand more fully the cost of our forgiveness and the need to stop erecting barriers of resentment, hate or revenge between God and us. Forgiveness is for our own good. God forgave us all our sin, so we also need to be ready to forgive every sin and not keep count. No matter how often someone sins against us we are to continue forgiving, not seven times but seventy-seven times. And that means over and over and over again.
Prayer: Dear God, give us exactly what we need for that day. Because we know we just have to trust you to provide and go out and gather it. So, as we choose to forgive seventy times seven, you are faithful to help us with it each and every day. It comes down to, would we rather be right, or right with God? We are all struggling with something, and the world does not revolve around us and our problems. So, we need to make an effort to be aware of that and forgive others so that when we screw up, we could hope for the same mercy from them. Treat others as we want to be treated. Then we closer to the ideal of 490, completed spiritual perfection. In Jesus’ Name I Pray Amen.
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