The Hardest Words Ever Said

Good morning. My name is Nathan debris, and I'd like to welcome you to day two of the 21 day devotional, Restart Your Heart, with the Pentecostals of Murfreesboro. I'm glad that you could join us as we go through this devotional today. I encourage you to go back and catch up on day one if you haven't already.

So today's devotional is entitled "The Hardest Words Ever Said" — the hardest words ever said. And when we think about that, the first topic that kind of comes to mind, when you search the entire scriptures and think about what would be a difficult thing to do or say, the topic of forgiveness comes to mind. Jesus was our ultimate example of forgiveness, and what he did and what he said is kind of wrapped up in our central verse, Luke 23:34, found in the devotional. It says, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

We're talking about forgiveness here. And in that moment, Jesus was hanging on the cross. He was — he had already been beaten, he had been completely tortured and put in such an awful situation that for him to say those words, it was very evident that God's Spirit was flowing and using him as an example for all of us today.

I, when I was thinking about this devotion, I was going through it, I started to think about an appropriate subtitle to the title, "The Hardest Words Ever Said." The subtitle that I came up with is "When It's Time — I'm Sorry — When It's Tough But Time to Forgive." When it's tough but time to forgive. And there were three points that I came up with for that subtitle: when you've actually experienced a loss, this is a tough time to be put in the place of having to forgive; when you realize the person who you've wronged isn't willing to accept forgiveness; and then a third one, when you do it quickly with no delay to prevent bitterness.

Forgiveness is not an easy act. It requires seeing a situation through God's eyes. We do this by not resorting to a long stemming herd or bitterness, but allowing God's Spirit to work through us in a given situation. Jesus was very intentional about forgiving, and forgiving quickly. He did not wait until after his suffering was complete; he did it in the middle of his suffering, and he gave that as it, as an example for us.

If you think about it, I'd like to think about it in terms of a stain. And we know we've all had stains hit our clothing at different times, but the one thing we understand about stains is, if we would like to remove that and to completely clear them out of our clothing to where we can never, you know, see anything, you know, there again, the — the best thing to do is to quickly remove that stain, is to quickly get soap and water on it. And the greatest way in which we can forgive is to do it quickly.

I think about the example of a few years back. Many of us are familiar with what happened in Charleston, South Carolina, with the church shooting that went on there. And the one thing that came out from that story I remembered was that many of the victims' families, the next day when they had to face the tutor and his initial hearing in court, the one thing that stuck out that they did was that they forgave him. And they forgave him quite quickly, right after the — the horrible tragedy had occurred. They looked him face-to-face and they said, "We forgive you. We forgive you." This is not an easy act. And I — my understanding and — and what I gleaned from that situation is that they did not want anything to go by, any — any time to go by, anything to set in, into their heart, in order for them, you know, to get that forgiveness out and for them to move on with their lives.

Forgiveness is not only offensive, but its defensive. Its offensive in the sense that we are blessing that person who we are forgiving. We're saying, "No, I don't have any ill will give against you. I forgive you. I bless you. I want you to live a fruitful and prosperous life." And then it's defensive in the sense that even if that person doesn't accept it, it doesn't matter; it's for us. It allows us to be effective, and it allows our hearts to be guarded and not to allow bitterness and hurt to set in, because that has such a harmful effect later on as we try to walk through the many years to follow in our — in our Christian lives.

So as we close today, I want us to think about how we can forgive in the future, even if there's not anybody that we know of today that we need to forgive — how, if we're ever caught in a situation, that we are quick to forgive and that we bless anyone that may have done a wrong against us, because we know that our Heavenly Father so many times has forgiven us.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for all your many blessing it's on us, Oh God, today. We thank you for how you have done such a great work in each and every one of our lives. Over done, we thank you for your forgiving power, or Lord. We thank you for the act of forgiving us, O Lord, at our deep in darkest times, O God. We asked, Lord Jesus, that you would be with us all today, O God, that you would protect us, that you would watch over. So God, would pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'd like to thank you again for joining me for day two, "The Hardest Words Ever Said." Take some time today to read the devotional for yourself if you haven't already. Join us live again tomorrow at 7 a.m. for day 3, "Love Matters." God bless.