Forgiveness- Ephesians 4:32
Week of January 26th
Ephesians 4:32
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Forgiveness is a challenging thing. Forgiving someone means moving past the ways they have hurt you. When someone is mean to us, it makes us angry and we often want to stay angry forever. But that is not how God treats us. We have all done a lot of things to hurt God. Anytime we say mean things to others, anytime we lie, anytime we disobey our parents, anytime we hit or push our siblings, all these things hurt God because He cares about all humans and doesn’t like to see us hurting one another or being disrespectful. Instead of being mad at us forever, God lets go of the hurt we have caused Him and loves us anyway. We are called to be image bearers of God, to try and live and love as God did through His son Jesus. So, we too are supposed to forgive one another. We are supposed to let go of our anger towards someone after they wrong us. God keeps no record of our wrongs and because we are supposed to be like God, we too are not supposed to keep a list of the wrongs people have done to us. What is wonderful about this is that when we let go of the ways people have hurt us, and when we choose to forgive people, we will feel better. It is not good to keep anger inside of us or to live mad at other people. Life feels so much more peaceful and freeing when we can let go of all the mean things that have been said and done to us, and just love the people around us. All people mess up and say mean things or do mean things. We hurt God all the time. We hurt our parents and siblings and friends sometimes too. This isn’t how God wants the world to be but we all still mess up and hurt each other. One of the most important commandments God gave us is to love one another, so, instead of anger towards one another, we should focus on loving one another and forgiving all wrongs.
Ephesians 4:32
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Forgiveness is a challenging thing. Forgiving someone means moving past the ways they have hurt you. When someone is mean to us, it makes us angry and we often want to stay angry forever. But that is not how God treats us. We have all done a lot of things to hurt God. Anytime we say mean things to others, anytime we lie, anytime we disobey our parents, anytime we hit or push our siblings, all these things hurt God because He cares about all humans and doesn’t like to see us hurting one another or being disrespectful. Instead of being mad at us forever, God lets go of the hurt we have caused Him and loves us anyway. We are called to be image bearers of God, to try and live and love as God did through His son Jesus. So, we too are supposed to forgive one another. We are supposed to let go of our anger towards someone after they wrong us. God keeps no record of our wrongs and because we are supposed to be like God, we too are not supposed to keep a list of the wrongs people have done to us. What is wonderful about this is that when we let go of the ways people have hurt us, and when we choose to forgive people, we will feel better. It is not good to keep anger inside of us or to live mad at other people. Life feels so much more peaceful and freeing when we can let go of all the mean things that have been said and done to us, and just love the people around us. All people mess up and say mean things or do mean things. We hurt God all the time. We hurt our parents and siblings and friends sometimes too. This isn’t how God wants the world to be but we all still mess up and hurt each other. One of the most important commandments God gave us is to love one another, so, instead of anger towards one another, we should focus on loving one another and forgiving all wrongs.
Discussion:
- What does it look like to forgive someone?
- Is there anyone that you still have anger towards and you need to forgive?
- What things has God had to forgive you for?
- Is there anything hurtful you have done recently that you need to ask God or the person you hurt for forgiveness?
- Spend time right now and throughout the week memorizing Ephesians 4:32.
- Close in prayer thanking God for His forgiveness and ask Him for help forgiving those who hurt you. Encourage your children to lead your family in prayer.
- Song link to help memorize the verse of the week: watch