If anyone is undeserving of the love of God, it is me. And I guess all of us could make that statement if we are honest about things and it be true. We do not deserve and cannot earn salvation. We cannot clean our own lives up enough, we cannot live a good enough life. If left to our own devices, we CANNOT succeed. But God had a plan. His plan is GRACE, extended through us by the sacrifice of His Son for our sins. And our lives should never be the same.
Jesus talked about love. He talked about forgiveness. He leads us to forgive and love each other, and reminds us to do it in the same manner it has been done to us. With that truth in mind, why do you think there are times in life when WE, the recipients of His grace, His disciples, find it so hard to extend grace to others?
My heart breaks when I hear stories of people who looked for grace in the one place where they thought they would find it, the one group that should understand it, and they found none. Ironic? Maybe a little hypocritical? Why don’t we do it?
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35 tells this story. This parable about forgiveness tells the story of a master who forgives a tremendous debt to one of his servants. The servant immediately goes out and starts shaking people who owed him down. Threatening the full extent of the law. For almost nothing. When the master hears of the servant’s wickedness, he reverses his decision and hands the man over to the jailers to be tortured until he pays back every penny.
Jesus ends this parable by saying 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Hmmm …. something to think about on a Monday morning.
The Random Thinker 
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