Words of Wisdom

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." - Luke 6:37

I guess I've just had a lot of trouble...with judging people and being judged by others and definitely forgiving people as well. I don't like repeating myself cuz I've already shared this yesterday at fellowship with my small group, so I'll try to be short. I hold a lot of things in my heart, mainly cuz I don't really like pulling people aside and talking to them about how I feel or something. Unless I'm like really comfortable with them...I'll just hold it in my heart and not say anything and pretend everything is fine, but in my head it's not. But yeah...lately, scripture...and God...have just been speaking to me really heavily...like we were sinners, we were imperfect, impure, lowly and everything that God hates. Yet He loved us so much, He sent his ONE and ONLY Son to bare the wrath, the pain, the sins of man. That's just mind blowing to me...and He tells us, if I can forgive You, how come you can't forgive others? As I was writing this, this story came to my mind, so I'll just share it with you guys, it's called "The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant":

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he has be sold to repay the debt. At this the servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go. But that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.' But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from you heart."

That just really speaks volumes to me...it's like the master is God...he didn't have to forgive us of our sins, but He did. Yet we go ground like the unmerciful servant to our fellow brothers and sisters and we can't seem to forgive them even though they wronged us...when Jesus forgave us, that was just a really good time of reflection for me.