(Photo posted on the Facebook page “Finish Well”)

Can you either quantify or qualify the forgiveness the Lord has given you?  How much forgiveness did the Father extend to you when His Son cried “It is finished!” on the Cross?

Are we as forgiving of wrongs done to us as Jesus is of the wrongs we did to Him?  No, we are not.  Our stinking flesh gets in the way.  Therefore the Holy Spirit tells us in Ephesians 4:22-32 to “put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:  Neither give place to the devil.  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

If we do not put off the old man and put on the new man we will not be forgiving and become bitter.  We will become toxic to the people around us because we will have failed the grace of God and let a root of bitterness spring up to trouble us, and thereby many be defiled.  (Hebrews 12:15).

Do yourself a favor:  invest in your spiritual health and be forgiving.  Always forgive.  Does not Jesus always forgive?  Does not the love from which forgiveness spring win?