Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale Daily DevotionalSample

Forgiveness Something happened between you and a co-worker, a family member, or a friend. You did or said something you shouldn't have. The guilt of what you'd done wore you down. Life wasn't what it should be. And then...resolution took place. Forgiveness followed. And you felt free. Nothing quite compares to the experience of forgiveness. You know the feeling. That sense of relief when a heavy burden is lifted off your shoulders. But it doesn't always go down that way. Sometimes the resolution never happens and the forgiveness never comes. Why? Because the people we hurt don't always forgive us. And it's in this painful reality that we most fully appreciate the fact that when it comes to the relationship that matters most, our relationship with God, forgiveness can always be found. It's God's nature to forgive. The Psalmist was struck by this as he reviewed Israel's past. At every historical turn, God's forgiveness was always there...so much so that he identifies the God of Israel as the "God-Who-Forgives." And God's forgiveness doesn't dim one iota in the New Testament. Just the opposite, it intensifies. We see His forgiveness in the form of His own Son coming to live among us and eventually dying for our sins. God could hold our sins against us, but He doesn't. His heart is to forgive, not to catalog or keep track of our wrongs. He wants to scatter them as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12) and cast them into the deepest part of the Sea of Forgetfulness (Micah 7:19). We don't belong to the "God-Who-Holds-Grudges." We belong to the "God-Who-Forgives," and that's a real reason to rejoice. And you, being dead in your trespasses...He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses... (Colossians 2:13 NKJV) God could hold our sins against us, but He doesn't. His heart is to forgive, not to catalog or keep track of our wrongs. What does this passage reveal to me about God? What does this passage reveal to me about myself? Based on this, what changes do I need to make? What is my prayer for today?