Plans

This whole summer I was making plans for Jamie’s birthday. I was worried I wouldn’t come up with any good ideas so I paid close attention whenever we went shopping at the mall to what she seemed to want. I don’t remember exactly when, but at some point I had a bunch of really great ideas. I was totally psyched to get her the things I came up with. I even told myself “no Isaiah, don’t get those things for her now, wait for later in the year so you can make sure she doesn’t buy any of them for herself and then you don’t have to return anything.”

So, later in the year rolls around and I mysteriously find myself completely broke, then I find out that my car needs to be fixed, and to top it all off I apparently forgot to pay someone money I owed them from mid-summer. I then realized I couldn’t afford even the smallest thing I had planned to get her. Needless to say I was/am really bummed about this. Fortunately I have some new ideas, but they aren’t nearly as epic.

This got me thinking about how nothing ever seems to go as planned, which then reminded me of Proverbs 16:9.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

When my plans fail and I get upset it’s simply because I fail to recognize the fact that our almighty God, who knows far more than I do, has better plans than me.

I know I’ve touched on this issue before, but at this time in my life, planning is a very relevant subject and it never hurts to be reminded that God has a better plan than we could ever imagine.

Forgiveness

I recently got a request asking me to write a blog about forgiveness, and when I told Jamie what I was doing she responded with “ohhh boyyy that’ll be a good one for you” because I’m not always the most forgiving person in the world.. in fact it’s something I’ve really been working on lately.

I figured I should start off by mentioning what Jesus has to say on the issue, because, after all, He’s a pretty smart dude.

Matthew 18:21-35 is Jesus teaching about forgiveness. He tells a parable of a king who wants to settle his accounts with his servants. The king brings in one of his servants who owes him ten thousand talents and the servant is unable to pay him back but before the king throws him into jail, the servant begs for patience from the king and the king one ups him and forgives him of his debt. That very same slave then went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, the fellow slave asked for patience but instead the servant, who was just forgiven, throws his fellow servant into jail for owing him far less than the amount he owed the king.

The king found out what happened and said “You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way I had mercy on you?”

Then the king moved with anger and handed him over to be tortured until he should repay all that he owes.

Jesus then goes on to say, “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart.”

(I really recommend you read it for yourself in the Bible because God’s wording is much better than my own)

I just want to point out that this isn’t necessarily saying that if you died right now, before you had a chance to forgive someone, then you’d go to hell, because we know from scripture throughout the Bible that we can’t lose our salvation. But in a way we are still condemned when we don’t forgive.

Throughout the Bible the primary description of Hell is separation from God, and it just so happens that when you can’t find it in yourself to forgive someone, you also can’t fully love God, and the longer you dwell on the wrongs that person committed towards you the farther you slip from God. Because to love God is to obey his commandments (1 John 5:3) and in Mark 12:31 we see the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Holding a grudge consumes you.

But the main thing Jesus was pointing out in that passage is, that it is awfully pathetic when we can’t forgive others for wrongs they’ve committed towards us, when Jesus forgives us for sinning against Him about a million times per day.

We are too selfish to give out just a little bit of grace to someone who has wronged us, when we’ve already received the ultimate amount of grace.

I can remember my first time reading that passage in Sunday school when I was little and the Sunday school teacher asked us what we thought of the evil servant and I immediately said he was a complete jerk and deserved what he got. Then she told me that he represented us and I remember just feeling a sense of “oh crap, she’s right”

We are that evil servant all too often.

This forgiveness business doesn’t come naturally to us, but fortunately we have the ultimate example in Jesus, whose grace is unlimited (1 Timothy 1:16).

So next time you are having trouble forgiving someone just remember how much you’ve been forgiven from and then free yourself from the chains of holding a grudge for your own sake and because you were forgiven first, even though you really didn’t deserve it.

Colossians 3:13
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you