Imitate His Forgiveness (Daily Devotional)

Hello and welcome to living supernaturally. This week we've been looking at a brand-new series, called God imitators. The beautiful thing is this, God has invited us to imitate Him. He does not get irritated when we mimic Him, when we copy Him, in fact, He's called us to be like Him. So, when we try to be like Him, it's not that we are trying to be presumptuous, it's not that we are trying to be boastful, but God in fact invites us, we are exhorted in scripture, to be like Him, to copy Him and to mimic Him. Ephesians chapter five and verse one, ‘therefore be imitators of God as dear children.’ So, there could be various aspects or character or nature of God that we are called to imitate. And today we look at one such thing that we are called to imitate, which is this aspect of forgiveness. We are called to imitate His forgiveness, the way He forgave us, the way He forgives the world, you and I are called to imitate that. Just want to read from Ephesians chapter four and verse 32, this is what it says, and ‘be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.’ So, if you see here, it says be kind, be tenderhearted, forgiving one another and it gives us the standard or the manner in which we are called to forgive. We're not called to forgive those who are humble before us or those who are repentant and those who feel bad for what they did or who at least tell us that they are sorry. We are called to forgive irrespective of the consequence, irrespective of the response of the people. So, it says, even as God in Christ forgave you and that's how God in Christ forgave us, when He forgave us on the cross, He forgave us in unconditionally. The bible says that while we were yet sinners, He died on the cross. And even from the cross, the Lord looked at the people gathered there and said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Even in the face of harm, bodily harm, even as a response to that, the Lord forgave. Colossians chapter three and verses 12 to 13, ‘Therefore, as the elect of God holy and beloved, put-on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so, you also must do.’ There we see that again, reiteration of the standard for forgiveness and many of us struggle with this. It's easy to forgive those who are humble, it's easy to forgive those who are repentant, but it's very difficult to forgive those who don't care. They just seem to go on, but as God in Christ forgive, we are called to forgive also. And by doing this, we will walk as children of God, we will be mimicking, we will be copying the way God functions or the way God ministers. So, we are called to imitate His forgiveness. So maybe there are people in your life whom, even as we've been listening to this, their names come to your mind, that you need to forgive. So just remember, if you forgive them, you will be doing what God will do. You will be a God imitator. Let's pray, Father, we thank you, that you've called us to forgive, even as God in Christ forgave and we thank you for the forgiveness that we have received, that we enjoy and today we make a choice to forgive others, even as you forgave and we know that when we forgive, that we will be liberated, that we are set free and when we forgive, we will walk just like you, we thank you for this privilege to walk in forgiveness and to be God imitators. We give you all the praise and glory, in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

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