Before our daily cleansing with SOAP, here's a little "pre-shower" for you....
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." ~Matthew 18:1-5
Wow. The disciples have once again been bickering about which of them is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. When the disciples finally muster up the courage to ask Jesus, he effectually says, "None of you the way you are now. You need to become like little kids!"
What did Jesus mean by that? He certainly knew that responsible adults can't become irresponsible kids again. But I feel that Jesus wasn't talking about that. I think he was referring to the way little children trust their parents. In the same way that a little kid totally depends on and trusts his parents, so should we depend on and trust our Heavenly Father. Hmmmmmm........
To finish up this discussion on kids, I must share this verse. It comes at the end of Jesus' discussion on kids, when he's just finished telling about a shepherd who is so happy that he found his one lost sheep. Here goes:
"In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." ~Matthew 18:14
Moving along, I found these verses really cool:
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." ~Matthew 18:19-20
Wow. That's a powerful promise. Why don't we see results more? Do we not even have mustard-seed size faith?? (see Matthew 17:20-21) Just some thoughts to think about.
OK. Now onto our SOAP for the day!
Scripture:
"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."~Matthew 18:35
Observation:
This verse comes at the end of one of Jesus' parables. Peter had asked Jesus how many times should he forgive his brother. Then Jesus told a parable, which I'll quickly paraphrase here.
Basically, there was a servant who owed hundreds of dollars to his master. Since the servant could not pay the debt, the master ordered that his wife and kids be taken away. The servant begged his master not to do this, and in the end the master very kindly canceled this servant's debt.
The servant went out from his master's presence, but while he was still on the way he met up with another man, who had borrowed just a few cents from him. This guy hadn't paid, but was actively working on repaying the debt. When the servant saw this guy, he grabbed him by the neck and demanded that he pay here and now. This guy begged the servant for mercy, promising to repay as soon as possible. But the servant had no mercy, and threw this guy in prison until the money was repaid.
Some other servants saw this interaction, and went to tell the master of the servant who had owed a lot of money. When the master heard about it, he was furious and called in his servant who had owed him a lot. "Why didn't you have mercy on that guy who owed you a little, just like I had a lot of mercy for you?" the master roared, sending his servant off to prison until the complete original debt was paid.
Application:
So I'm happily reading this story...and then Jesus drops the bombshell:
"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
WOW. Did you really catch that? Go read it again! This is how my Father will treat you unless you truly forgive people. Wow. I don't know about you, but I know that it is hard for me sometimes to forgive people. I may say "I forgive you" or whatever, but I still hold a grudge against them for whatever wrong thing they did to me. It's hard to truly say "I forgive you" and forgive and forget. But at the same time that's what Jesus is saying we must do, or God will treat us in a way we don't like. Hmmmmm.......
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for letting me read this chapter today. Please help me to truly "forgive and forget" more often. Amen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
P.S.--To learn more about this blogging-through-the-gospels program, or if YOU would like to join yourself (you're more than welcome-jump right in!!) click here.
I agree.. His statement is a big wake-up call and reminder of how He truly forgives us and how big a deal that is.
ReplyDeleteTruly forgiving someone can be hard.. and yet He does it when we ask Him to. So we must reach into our hearts and really forgive, too. Not easy-- but a beautiful gift.
"In the same way that a little kid totally depends on and trusts his parents, so should we depend on and trust our Heavenly Father."
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. Prayer is the way that we become completely dependent on God. If we fail to come to Him in complete dependence, we are in fact sinning, as we are telling Him we don't need His help.