Oct 09 2008
Forgiveness…breaking the chain of ungrace.
Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional just floored me this morning.
The topic was entitled, “The Chain of Ungrace.” It was definitely something that I needed to read today.
Last night, my 3yo son woke up with a bad sniffle. He was sniffling so loud that I was afraid he would wake up my 1yo son, whom I have just started getting to sleep through the night.
While I was trying to quiet him, my husband got angry and said something like, “I’ll take him in to the living room to sleep, since you keep this door shut and it gets so stuffy in here!”
Well, I felt so attacked! “Oh, sure! Everything is MY fault!” I thought to myself over and over. I was all ready to snub him this morning and possibly give him a piece of my mind AND let him know how wrong he was…until I read this morning’s devotional…
Today’s Our Daily Bread was written by Phillip Yancey. Some of you may know that he is a very well-known Christian author. Well, he really hit the nail on the head for me. He listed “three pragmatic reasons” for him to forgive others, besides the fact that the Father commands us to by saying, “If you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25) Mr. Yancey’s pragmatic reasons are exceptionally intelligent.
The first reason states, “First, forgiveness halts the cycle of blame and pain, breaking the chain of ungrace. Without it we remain bound to the people we can’t forgive, held in their vise grip.” Oh my gosh! That is EXACTLY what I was feeling. That is exactly what I feel every time I am angry at someone. How remarkable that Phillip Yancey said that!
I’m not going to tell you what the rest of them are. :o) You really should to and read the devotional here for yourself. I pray that you are blessed by it as well.
My attitude about my husband is gone now. :o)
