July 3rd: Genesis 45:1-15

-
Genesis 45:1-15

After everything his brothers had done to him, Joseph was able to forgive them, treat them with mercy, love, and compassion, and because of this his family was restored.  His father came down and lived in Egypt with him, as did his brothers and their families.

Have you ever struggled to forgive someone?  How can you forgiven someone when they have truly hurt you?

It can be hard to forgive, but when we remember Jesus on the cross crying out, "Father forgive them" we are reminded that no matter how greatly someone has sinned against us, we have sinned far more often against the Lord, yet He still forgives.

The fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer is helpful to consider here too.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Anchored in the Word

-
Image
Greetings in Christ! It seems every Christian knows that reading the Bible is a good thing to do and that getting children to read the Bible is a very good thing to do, but it's very intimidating to know where to start. How much should I read? What am I supposed to learn from this? With this in mind, I decided to put together a simple reading plan for the summer of 2019.  This is a plan that is easy enough for children, but substantive enough for adults.  It won't take long to do the reading each day and to go along with the reading we will have a few thoughts, questions, and/or pictures on the blog each day that correspond to the daily reading. If you've had a hard time getting into the habit of daily Bible reading, have never done it before, or want to help your children learn to read the Bible for themselves, Anchored in the Word is for you. Below is the reading schedule. You can sign up to receive via e-mail the daily posts that correspond to the readings.  A l
Read more

August 1st: Luke 11:1-13

-
Image
Luke 11:1-13 Our Father We get to call God, our Father. This is amazing when you think about it. We, created being who sin regularly, can approach the most Holy God and even dare to call Him Father. It's amazing, but it is true. I love how Luther explains this in the catechism. Our Father who art in heaven. What does this mean?  With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father. You get to approach God as your Father, so why don't you make sure you take the time to do so today?
Read more

July 13th: Luke 4:16-30

-
Image
Luke 4:16-30 The people couldn't believe what they were hearing. When Jesus said that the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled that very day through Him, they became angry with Him.  Just who did He think He was? But it wasn't about who He thought He was, but rather who He knew He was: the very Son of God. The people wanted Jesus to do a miracle to prove Himself to them, but He refused.  The Word of God is enough, they wouldn't get an extra sign. There are times when we would like a sign from God too, but God hasn't promised such signs. What He has promised is that He will be with us and speak to us through His Word. Jesus had come to announce that the Kingdom of God was present, but the people of Nazareth rejected Him, His message, and so remained outside of His gracious kingdom.  In the Lord's prayer we pray that this would not be the case for us. Thy kingdom come. What does this mean?  The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, bu
Read more