Learning to forgive someone for something that occurred in the past…this is a tough thing for many of us.  It is not in our human nature to forgive.  We usually struggle because we are waiting for the other person to earn our forgiveness, however, as we read in the Scriptures, our forgiveness for our sins was not nor will it ever be earned.  If God was going to wait for us to show we deserved to be forgiven for our sinful ways…well just look around you at the world and the behavior of people…sin rules this world as much or more now than it ever has.  We do not deserve to saved from our sins and yet God sent His Son to suffer and die for us, to pay the penalty for our sins so that we are forgiven and our relationship is reconciled.  We can learn to forgive and break free from the anger, the hatred, the finger pointing that keeps us stuck in a cycle of violence and hurting each other.  Forgiveness means we are not going to let the hurts of the past control our future behavior…that is exactly what God has done for you and for me.  I pray we can each pick one relationship that we know needs our attention and seek to forgive, so that we can be free from the hurts of the past.  Amen.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Ephesians 4:32

(This photo was taken in April of 2016 on a lake in central Minnesota)