Ezekiel 33: 30-32 -“As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, ‘Come and hear the message that has come from the Lord.’ My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice."
Now here's the actual post....
I thought I would do something different for this week's post. I wanted to share a video that picks up on a thought I've had on my mind for quite some time now. On my walk, I've slowly but surely dragged my feet through the book of Ezekiel. I feel like I don't understand half of the things that Ezekiel sees or hears from God but there has been certain qualities that God reveals about Himself so beautifully-two of the many are his patience and forgiveness. In Ezekiel 16, God explains how his own people betrayed him. He compares his people to an adulterous wife. In this sad and gruesome analogy, God shows that even though he is deeply grieved by how little his people love him, he still remains patient and merciful to them and God is calling me to do the same today. Here are some mind blowing examples of exactly how God expects one to forgive others as we ourselves have been forgiven, check out Matthew 18: 21-35 and John 8:1-11.
If you're going to watch the video, I suggest you pause the music by pressing the "play/pause" button on the Ipod located on the top right of the webpage now.
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Luke 17:3-4 says "Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” I have to constantly remind myself that Christ had to die for my sins the same way he had to die for the sins of the person who hurt me. All of us are in the same boat when it comes to how we stand before God so why is it so hard for me to remember that- "All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him"? (Isaiah 53:6)
What has really been helpful for me whenever I have a moment where I get angry at someone I love for doing something that hurts me is reminding myself of this verse. At first I'll feel that moment of hurt and anger but that is when I tell myself to take a step back and ask if it's really worth wasting 2 or 5 or however many minutes of my life dwelling on and being angry about this incident that I probably won't remember if I don't dwell on it. Sometimes the best way to react in a situation is thinking before actually reacting.
The human mind is an amazing creation so I'm not going to be naive and tell myself it's an easy task to forgive and forget. It's not easy to forget past grievances but you see, when I realize just how much I'm guilty of and how much I myself been forgiven for, I wouldn't dare give a second thought to forgiving someone else for an offense against me. That's the moment when Luke 17:3-4 will seem like the only reasonable thing to do. I pray that I will take this thought that's been on my heart so seriously that it will show in my actions.
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