Forgiveness Without Counting

Forgiveness can feel noble in theory and impossible in real life, especially when you were blamed, dismissed, or hurt again and again. I start the morning with a question most of us have asked privately: how many times am I supposed to forgive before I’m allowed to be done? Peter puts that exact tension to Jesus in Matthew 18, and the response is both confronting and strangely relieving.

Transcript

Welcome And Daily Reset

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right.

Why Forgiveness Feels Impossible

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Forgiveness is one of those things that we all agree we should do, and we all believe that we have done to a certain extent. But true, complete forgiveness is one of the hardest things that we face as Christians. Over Matthew chapter 18, verses 20 and 21, Peter came to Jesus and said, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? It was a very good question for Peter to ask. It was a very fair question for Peter to ask. Jesus had just been teaching that forgiveness was from the heart. It was something that took place inside of you. So now Peter's saying, Well, how often should I do this? And Jewish law was very clear. Jewish law stated that you should forgive people three times. So Peter, thinking he was doing pretty good, said, How about seven times? We'll get to Jesus' answer in just a moment.

A Flour Bag Lesson On Hurt

SPEAKER_00 1:27

First, I'd like to share with you a story from Sheila Walsh and how she taught her son about forgiveness. She used to watch her son come home from school every day, and she could tell as he was walking whether he had a good day or a bad day. And so she knew how to greet him when he came to the door. And one day he was coming home and she knew he had had a bad day. So her son's name is Christian, and she asked him when he got home if he would like to go to the ice cream parlor and get some ice cream. He said sure, and off they went. Let me pick up the story there and read it to you as Sheila told the story. We sat down and both had ice cream, and then Christian said to me, Mom, do you want to know what happened to me today? I was like, Yeah, I do. He said his best friend, we'll call him Charles for now, had knocked over Christian's desk and all the pencils fell off, and the teacher turned around and said, Christian, pick up your desk and pick up all your pencils. And he said, I didn't do it. Charles did it. And he said, Mom, I got into trouble twice. Once for knocking over my desk, which I didn't do, and and two for tattling. So at lunchtime I said to Charles, You need to go in and tell the teacher that you did it. And you know what he said, Mom? He said, No. So here's the deal. We're no longer friends and he's off my prayer list. I was like, Yeah, I I totally get that. I totally get that. That's terrible. So that night after he'd had his bath and he was in his pajamas, I said to Christian, Would you like to go on an adventure? He said, In my pajamas? I said, Yes, in your pajamas. He said, I'd love it. I said, Okay. If you'll go to the closet and get that big bag of flour that I got from Costco, we're going to need that. He said, I've got it, Mom. So he gets this big bag of flour and he's like six or seven. He's just a little boy. So we went out the back door. We used to live on a golf course just outside of Nashville. So we're marching along and he's holding this big bag of flour, and he's like, Are we nearly there yet, Mom? And I'm like, No, no, just a little bit further, but you're gonna need that. And eventually he just sits down on the grass and says, Mom, I can't do this. It's too heavy. So I sat down beside him and I said, Baby, that's what it's like when you won't forgive. Charles has probably been asleep for thirty minutes now. You're the one out here carrying the load. I said to him, I know what happened to you was not fair. But forgiveness is God's gift to us to live in a world that is not fair. Fair doesn't live here, but Jesus does.

Seventy Times Seven And Freedom

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Let's go back to Matthew 18. Peter had just asked Jesus how many times you should forgive someone. Should it be up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I say it to you not seven times, but seventy times seven. Jesus was saying, Don't count. Just keep forgiving. Let me ask you this. Are there people in your life that you need to forgive? That you need to let go of a hurt that you've been carrying maybe for a long time, and it's there, it's weighing you down, it's it's just a load that you deal with. And whenever your mind goes on to that subject or that person, you feel the weight again. We need to forgive. We need to let it go. We need to give it to God. And when we do, it's like getting rid of that big sack of flour that little Christian was carrying around. It's not worth wasting all of that energy carrying that load. Jesus came that we might have life and have it to the full. He said, give to him those things that are weighing us down, and he will give us strength and rest, the things that we need the most. So my encouragement today is stop carrying around unforgiveness. It's just a weight that will hold you down. It's a weight that will keep you awake at night when you're thinking about it. It will distract your mind, it will break your heart. Jesus said, Let me come and take what is your burden so that you have the freedom to live as I have created you.

Final Encouragement And Invitation

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Have a great day, my friend. We'll talk to you. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.