Devotions

Forgiveness is a way of life, meant to bring us into every blessing in Christ. “I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:44-45, NKJV).

Forgiveness isn’t a matter of picking or choosing whom we would forgive. We can’t say, “You’ve hurt me too much, so I’m not forgiving you.” Christ tells us, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 5:46).

It doesn’t matter whom our grudge might be against. If we hold onto it, it will lead to bitterness that poisons every aspect of our lives. Unforgiveness brings on spiritual famine, weakness and a loss of faith, afflicting not just us but everyone in our circle.

Over the past fifty years of my ministry, I have seen terrible devastation in the lives of those who withheld forgiveness. I have also seen the glorious power of a forgiving spirit. Forgiveness transforms lives. It fills our cup of spiritual blessing to the brim with abundant peace, joy and rest in the Holy Ghost. Jesus’ teaching on this subject is very specific. If you want to move in this wonderful realm of blessing, heed and embrace his words. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).

Make no mistake. God isn’t making a bargain with us here. He is not saying, “Because you’ve forgiven others, I will forgive you.” We can never earn God’s forgiveness. Only the shed blood of Christ merits forgiveness of sin.

Christ is saying here, “Full confession of sin requires that you forgive others. If you hold on to any unforgiveness, you haven’t confessed all your sins. True repentance means confessing and forsaking every grudge, crucifying every trace of bitterness toward others. Anything less isn’t repentance.”

This goes hand in hand with his Beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). Forgive others, so you can move into the blessings and joy of sonship. When you forgive, you’re revealing the Father’s nature to the world.

In ancient Israel, the ark of the covenant represented the mercy of the Lord, a powerful truth that came to be embodied in Christ. We are to receive his mercy, trust in the saving blood of his mercy, and be saved eternally. You can ridicule the law. You can mock holiness. You can tear down everything that speaks of God. When you mock or ridicule God’s mercy, however, judgment comes and swiftly. If you trample on his blood of mercy, you face his awful wrath.

That’s exactly what happened to the Philistines when they stole the ark. Deadly destruction came down on them until they had to admit, “This isn’t just chance or happenstance. God’s hand is clearly against us.” Consider what happened when the ark was taken into the heathen temple of Dagon to mock and challenge Israel’s God. In the middle of the night, the mercy seat on the ark became a rod of judgment. The next day, the idol Dagon was found fallen on its face before the ark, its head and hands cut off (see 1 Samuel 5:2-5).

Beloved, this is where America should be today. We should have been judged long ago. I say to all who mock and challenge the mercy of God, “Go ahead. Try all you want to bring Christ’s church under the power of secularism or agnosticism. If you mock the mercy of Christ, God will cast all your power and authority to the ground.” Jeremiah says, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22). When men make a mockery of that great mercy which is Christ, judgment is sure.

It is only the mercy of the Lord that delays judgment. Right now, America is benefiting from that mercy. Incredibly, our country is in a race with the rest of the world to remove God and Christ from society. The Lord’s mercies endure forever, and he loves this nation. I believe that is why he’s still pouring out blessings on us. His desire is that goodness will lead us to repentance (see Romans 2:4).

We are not to despair over the present condition in America. We grieve over the awful corruption, mockery and sin, but we have hope, knowing God is in full control. We know the mercies of God endure forever.

One of the greatest burdens I have as a shepherd of the Lord is “Oh, God, how do I bring hope and comfort to believers who are enduring such great pain and suffering? Give me a message that will cancel their doubt and fear. Give me truth that will dry up the tears of the grieving and put a song on the lips of the hopeless.”

The message I hear from the Holy Spirit for God’s people is very simple. “Go to my Word, and stand on my promises. Reject your doubtful feelings.” All hope is born out of God’s promises.

I received a letter recently that contains a beautiful living illustration of this. It was from a mother who wrote, “My daughter is sixteen years old. She has a physical degeneration of her muscles, ligaments and joints. She is in extreme pain twenty-four hours a day. I lost my son to suicide in 1997 due to the same pain. He was twenty-two when, after nine years of suffering, he took his life. He couldn’t handle the pain.

“My daughter was a ballerina and was looking forward to going to Julliard School in New York City. Her dreams were shattered when she was stricken with the same disease that tormented her brother. The doctor said that on a scale of 1 to 10, her pain is at 14. The amount of painkiller needed to be effective for her would destroy her kidneys, so she can’t take the medicine.

“She loves the Lord and is a joy to be around. She is a wonderful poet whose writings have appeared in over 15 publications, and she is listed in the ‘International Who’s Who in Poetry.’”

In the face of everything, amid a relentless shaking of body and soul, this mother and her daughter have put their hope in God’s Word to them. He has given them peace. Has the enemy tried to tell you that God has bypassed you? Have you been tempted to conclude that the Lord isn’t with you? Have you almost given up your faith? Put your hope in the Lord’s Word to you, which says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, NKJV), and “The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know your name will put their trust in you; For you, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you” (Psalm 9:9-10).

In the Book of James, there’s a verse that a lot of believers quote, but it’s followed by another verse that I’d bet most of those same people don’t know. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…” I want to pause there and say that if you look at Elijah, he was just an ordinary man. He saw the wickedness all around him, so he stood up and spoke the truth.

We don’t know exactly what path Elijah took to becoming the prophet during one of the most wicked times in Israel, but we do know that he loved God. When he looked at the wickedness and paganism that gripped his country, he wanted to be a voice pointing people to God.

He was an ordinary man who believed God’s promises, and God used him to do incredible miracles. The verse in James goes on to say, “…and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth” (James 5:16-17, ESV). When I was a new believer, I came across this passage, and I thought to myself, “I don’t know that this Elijah guy was very smart. Why would you pray for a drought when that’s going to affect you too? You’re not going to have water just like your neighbor!”

Now that I’ve been walking with the Lord longer, I see the wisdom here. Elijah knew that people cry out to God in places of distress. Even if it meant that he would have to go through suffering, he was willing to do that because he knew that people would turn to God as they experienced hardship.

In places of distress, people often seek the Lord and see him most clearly. Even in the darkest places, don’t give up on prayer. James’ writing goes on to promise, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20). God puts great power behind the prayers of ordinary people.

^{John Bailey is the COO of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.}