Don't Carry It All
The Groceries or Your Grievances
One trip from the car to the house with all the groceries.
It sounds mythologically impossible when I type it… but every time I near the trunk of the minivan I am lured into the lie again, “I can make it.”
A finger is nearly severed as the plastic pulls razor tight… an apple shifts and a box starts to tilt…a bag rips…
As soon as things spill, I’m back to reality. Why did I try to carry all that!?
As the Lord Jesus is teaching us to pray, He instructions, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us” (Luke 11:4).
In prayer we fit together God’s world and Word. We struggle to get our arms around what God has said and what He has arranged for our lives.
Our sin is one of the biggest challenges we will face. Runner up is being sinned against.
Carrying the sins of others instead of putting them down in forgiveness is more tempting than one trip of groceries!
It is a pain to put things down and make the work of extra trips. There’s no reason to sugar coat it–when people sin against you, it hurts! It is a pain to unpack forgiveness1 and it takes a while in our lives!
Sin causes weight for our souls. Being sinned against is heavy. When we hold on to the sins of others against us, we carry burdens that slow us down in obedience. When we focus on the sins of others, we are tempted off the path of Christ.
Christian, you simply can’t carry the sins of others.
It may seem like a burden you can handle but a failure to forgive is a discipleship crisis.
The things people say against us or do to us have ways of capturing our attention and entangling our imagination. The Enemy loves when we rehearse the words and works of those who have sinned against us.
Every Christian wants to be a disciple of the Savior. The number one rival, whether they realize it or not, is often their oppressor.
Choose today whom you will follow– the One who died for you or the one who sinned against you.
Forgiveness is a fork in the path of discipleship.
Will you forgive or fume?
Clenched Fists cannot receive forgiveness. Clenched Fists display they have not received forgiveness.
In prayer, clenched fists transform to open hands that extend grace. Your first steps down the path of forgiveness come on your knees in prayer.
Forgiveness begins when we fix our attention, first and foremost, on God’s merciful response to our sin.
When we encounter God’s mercy and behold God’s justice in Christ, we see a path forward where God handles the ultimate accounting of sin, and we take up our part in His story.
In prayer we learn the dynamics of a forgiving relationship– from the receiving end! In prayer we begin to learn what it means to be on the delivery side of forgiveness. Forgiveness flow from our Father’s heart through our hearts.
In forgiveness we depend on God’s strength from Christ to weather the weight of sins against us. Christ’s Spirit empowers us to offer the weighty gift of forgiveness.
We don’t have the strength to offer this gift on our own. That’s why a life of forgiveness won’t exist without a life of prayer.
In prayer we can wrestle to get our hands around what has happened with God. In prayer we can struggle to figure out how to lift and extend the gift of mercy. We can learn from Christ Himself!
In prayer we can endure in mercy when offers of forgiveness meet unrepentant sinners… He can help us persevere in the painful absence of reconciliation.
In prayer we can depend on God to fit His world together with His Word even when relationships that were once close don’t fit together.
Are you carrying too much? Don’t believe the same old lies–you must put the sins of others down. You can ask the Lord Jesus to take a few things off your hands in prayer today!
“Unpacking Forgiveness” by Chris Brauns is worth every Christian’s time. https://www.amazon.com/Unpacking-Forgiveness-Biblical-Answers-Questions/dp/1581349807