Receiving Grace and ForgivingSample

Day 4 – The Holy Spirit convicts us to love REFLECTIONS The Holy Spirit convicts us to love. To turn our back on this conviction means that we also turn our backs on God’s Grace for the lost and to lose your passion for the kingdom of God. Read Matthew 6:14-15 and take a moment to answer the following questions: ➤  Why is forgiveness so important for us who are children of God? ➤  Who do I need to forgive and what is preventing me from doing so? STUDY These two verses continue and develop what Jesus taught us in the “Lord’s Prayer”, which is much more than a prayer, it is also a true way of living. In the prayer it states, “forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us”. (cf. Matthew 6:12). This reveals that the forgiveness that God gives us is conditional, not only that we repent of our own faults, but equally our capacity and the amount with which we are able to forgive those who have sinned against us. At the same time, it doesn’t affect our salvation, because as disciples of Christ, we have received forgiveness of our sins at the moment of our own repentance and because of our faith. We have been definitively forgiven of our past, this is justification by faith. We will talk more about this in the next study. You can also refer to the story that Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:23-25. To not forgive is something serious that can have grave consequences in our lives. We all need to be forgiven by God because we are not perfect, even if we resemble Christ more and more each day. It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us to love our neighbour. Because forgiveness is not a calculated act or for personal gain, it is an act of love towards the other person. When the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us to love, He shows us the other person, not as we perceive or view them, but how He sees them; an imperfect person who needs the grace of God and for whom Christ gave His life. This conviction of love that the Holy Spirit gives us in regards to other people comes and confronts our spirit of judgement and criticism (that we often call ascertainment). Judging and criticising is nothing other than pride, because we place ourselves in a position of superiority against the other person, and by acting in such a way, we forget that not only are we not any better than our neighbour, but also that God loves them just as much as He loves us. Our lives are only the result of His grace and love. It is in this closeness with the Holy Spirit that we are able to love just as God loves us. Judgment belongs to God and criticism to the devil, which means that neither of them have any place in our lives. Let us ensure then to cultivate our relationship with the Holy Spirit, in order to love and bless our neighbour. It isn’t something that is easy, or natural to do, but let us always remember that the kingdom of God is counter-cultural. It is for this reason that we need the presence of the Holy Spirit, but also to know how to deal with our feelings and thoughts. When we close our hearts to the grace of God we end up losing our internal peace and our passion for God’s kingdom. This leads us to focus our lives on us, our needs, our emotions etc. We become the centre of our world instead of allowing God to be the centre and the reason for our life. Once we are able to overcome this His kingdom naturally becomes the cause for which we are ready to give our lives. When you have a quarrel or you are offended and you refuse to forgive, if in the hours that follow you try to share your faith or to pray, you will quickly find that on the one hand nothing happens, and on the other hand you don’t feel at peace internally. You have lost your joy, your peace, the zest of living with Christ and your passion for Jesus. You cannot avoid conflict and it does form part of a healthy relationship, and you also cannot avoid being offended, however we need to know how to identify them and decide to forgive. And the best moment to do that is straightaway! Once we have decided to forgive, we rediscover His love, His peace, His joy etc and we can once again be in a position to love. To conclude, the only thing that can prevent us from forgiving is ourselves and the only way to overcome is to stay open and available to God’s presence. Because it is He who comes not only to convict us to love and to forgive, but He also gives us the force to do it. Never harden your heart to what He is doing, but instead let Him act in you and agree with Him. Our life depends on it, but also the lives of those around us. Because when we are passionate for the kingdom of God, then our world is transformed. Why not abandon your life to God now? I encourage you to pray in this sense. MY DECISION : ➤ What I have understood for my own personal life : ➤ What I am deciding to do in my life based upon what I have just learnt : ➤ What you decide to do today will determine who and what you will be tomorrow !