I think today's topic will really blow your mind. Christians often think about godly principles separate from other biblical principles or themes in the Bible. We don't do this on purpose. It seems it's often easier to think and or process about one thing at a time.
I'm a reading teacher who teaches students to take short stories or articles and read each chunk or paragraph to come up with a main idea. I'm also careful to have them take those mini chunks or subtopics and think about how they relate and obtain a main idea. If they never see that the parts make the whole main idea, comprehension never occurs.
Applying this idea to studying the Bible, I became aware of two principles of God that they have direct correlations with each other. This kind of thinking helps us to go deeper in our studies, as well as our relationship and walk with God.
So instead of thinking of the "law of sowing and reaping" and "forgiveness" as separate godly principles, the Holy Spirit opened up this combined biblical concept and blew my mind.
We will reap what we sow. That means that we will receive what we invest, whether good or bad. I have preached on this principle. I often commented on people's Facebook pages who write "what comes around goes around". Friends, this is true! If you sow in forgiveness, you will have more forgiveness extended to you. If you so in unforgiveness, you will have people who are not willing to forgive you.
How did I come to this conclusion? It was the rather simple. I began to examine my heart and some of the interactions that I recently observed. If someone is unable to mention a person's name because of a past incident etc., there must be unforgiveness. Yes, we've heard it spoken over and over how forgiveness frees the person on either end of the conversation and that forgiveness is good, and we can comprehend that.
But what if we accidentally harbor ill-will, due to a deep wound? This is going to have an adverse effect on our relationships with people and God. Take a personal inventory of the relationships and people in your life and see if there are people who have made it known that they have issues with you and are unwilling to extend forgiveness to you. If you answer yes to that question, perhaps you need to go back and pray, asking the Lord if there is someone who you have not forgiven. God never tells us to withhold our love. When we are unwilling to extend His love towards someone, that issue has to be dealt with. If you're asking the question, how many times do I have to forgive? Bible tells us 70×7.
So once I had this revelation, I went to Bible Gateway.com and began to look for support of this new understanding that I received today while walking and praying. One example of this is found in first Peter 3:7. Husbands are admonished to love and forgive their wives so that their prayers are not hindered. So there it is, the "law sowing and reaping" is related to both forgiveness and unforgiveness.
We are admonished to forgive others because Christ forgave us! Forgiveness is good because it sets people free. But finally, if we want forgiveness to be extended to us even as Christ loved and forgave us, we have to be willing to forgive no matter how hard it hurts. You may be reading this blog and saying I'm not hurt anymore, I just don't talk to him. But that is not forgiveness and if you have harbored bitterness in your heart, the law of sowing and reaping will come in full fruition to your house.
I never thought of it this way before! What do you think?
Galatians 6: 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
No comments:
Post a Comment