"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfullness." - Lamentations 3:22-23
This morning I had the pleasure of teaching my Mom's Sunday School class. It was super last minute. Like our teacher was running behind, so I decided to help him out. So, I opened my Bible to teach on Matthew 6:13 because I have been studying it for a devotional. I was then drawn to Matthew 6:14-15, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." I taught my lesson. And, by "taught my lesson," I mean I rambled on in that "oh, hey, I'm not sure what to say so let me just start rambling whatever comes to mind." Thankfully, God doesn't need any planning to say what He needs to. Somewhere in the midst of my rambling, I compared forgiveness to a never-ending chocolate fountain. Because who doesn't love a never-ending supply of chocolate? Ya know, besides me? I'll think of it as a white chocolate fountain and you all can think of it as a dark chocolate fountain, milk chocolate, whatever you would consume all day if you could. Over the course of the day I've thought of the truthfulness of that statement. We can forgive because God forgave us a long time ago when He died for our sins. He was completely perfect and CHOSE to die on the cross for us completely imperfect humans, because He loves us. He suffered and died for us. And, yet, we can't even forgive someone who cut us off in traffic three weeks ago. Why is that? It all goes back to us being completely imperfect humans. See, we run out of forgiveness because we run out of other things (i.e. patience, compassion, thoughtfulness). We neglect to that the world is full of people other than us. Maybe that person who cut you off had a medical emergency come up in their family or maybe on a more positive note someone they love told them they had found out some very exciting news and they were racing to find out what it is. But, we don't think of these things. We simply think "how in the world could they have cut ME off?" What if Christ had said, "How in the world could I forgive them when they hurt ME?" Imagine if Christ thought in capital "ME's." Where would we be? The good news is that He doesn't. He thinks in terms of love, compassion, grace, and forgiveness. And, He's got a never-ending supply of them! But, does Christ hold all of them for Himself? No, of course not, He shares them with us. He says, "Here's another round of grace for doing the same thing you did last week." Because His mercies are new every morning. He only asks that we share. He asks that we forgive as He has forgiven us. His segment of the chocolate fountain pours into our segment and it overflows into someone else's. That's what chocolate fountains do or else they wouldn't be fun to watch or dip things in. We know what it feels like to be poured into every morning and we should jump at the opportunity to pour into someone else so we can all enjoy some of God's awesome chocolate fountains. He has many flavors including: grace, forgiveness, mercy, hope, faith, love, etc. Which are you in need of today? Which should you be sharing more of? And, just think God's chocolate fountains are calorie AND guilt-free!
