“Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little….Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”

Luke 7:47-50 (KJV)

Jesus had just told the parable of a creditor forgiving 2 debts of different value and how the debtor who owed more would appreciate and love the creditor more and how the lesson was a parallel to how people act. If person 1 forgave person 2 for murder, but person 3 was only forgiven for lying, person 2 would love and appreciate person 1 more than person 3. That is the reason Jesus focused on reaching the “worst of the worst.” In life, when we hide our sins from others and God, we forget God will forgive us, no matter the sin. We miss out on an opportunity to receive God’s love and forgiveness only out of embarrassment, pride, or even a lack of faith. But if we only trust and believe that God has the power to change our hearts, He will.

We should forgive and love the people who have made a lot of mistakes because that will be more of a testimony to God as they will hopefully see God’s character in us. Thankfully, we don’t need to rely on our own amount of human love and forgiveness because, to be honest, we don’t have enough on our own. Our petty human brains will hold grudges and act out simply because we don’t have enough love to make everything better; which is why we need to ask for God’s love to make up for where we lack.
The love and forgiveness we show to others is a reflection of how much God has forgiven and loved us. It’s a chain reaction. God forgives you the sins you bring to Him, which hopefully inspires you to accept and forgive others.

Think of it like this:
Step 1- in faith, bring your heart to God in prayer and give to Him all of your sins. God will forgive them, and He will start to change your heart to love others with His love.

Step 2- (the more you practice step 1, the easier step 2 will be). When the opportunity comes to forgive and/or love others, God’s love will be enough for you to forgive and accept them as He forgave and accepted you.

Step 3-the more people we show God’s love to, the more people will see God in us, and you never know where the Holy Spirit will lead from there.

My challenge for you today is to ask God for the strength to forgive, love, and accept people, even when they don’t have the best reputation. For me, this also means to love people who don’t have the same brain-critic or tight moral compass as I have (which is a lot harder than it sounds).

Until next time,

-Alycia Dantier