How many people do you know who are always the same? No matter what time of day, what day of the week, or where you see them, they're always the same? You never have to wonder or guess what kind of mood they are in because they don't have "moods". They will have the same attitude and tone with you every single time you meet them.
I don't know about you, but I don't know many people who are like that.
I know that *I* am not like that. Sometimes I'm tired and not as jovial, sometimes I'm in pain and can be a little grumpy or sometimes I'm just distracted with other things and not quite as attentive. And isn't this just the way we are as humans? We change with the situation or circumstance or even the weather. Which of us can say we don't at least feel a little discouraged when we plan something outside and the forecast calls for rain?
How often do we get annoyed at the people we love who need to make changes in their lives, who say they are going to "do better", but then they fall right back into the same pattern? Whether it's an addiction or just some bad habits, this can be so annoying and so disheartening.
I have, like most of us do, family members who have fallen into addiction and been in and out of rehab and in and out of jail too. This particular person spent quite a long period of time in jail then got released and seemed to come out a new person. A better person. A wiser person. We all had high hopes that he would step up and be a father to his four children, that he'd begin living a purposeful, productive life. My husband and I took him to church with us several times before he started going regularly with his mother and children to another church in town.
Then I heard he'd gotten a job about 80 miles from here, he was moving up there to stay for a bit with his niece while he got settled and looked for his own apartment.
The next thing I knew, he was back in jail for use and possession. I am heartbroken over it, and have listened to my family speak harshly about being "done with" him and giving up on him now.
And I admit, I felt this way too. It's hard to keep believing in someone when they continually let you down.
Then my mind turned to God and how He must feel about me. I am constantly letting Him down, going back on my word, not keeping to my declarations of devotion to live for Him. How many times must He have wanted to give up on me? How many times would He have been well within His rights, as we mortals view them, to have turned His back on me? But how many times has He instead readily said, "I forgive you. It's okay. Just come back to Me and you can start over. Again."
That's a sobering thought when we look at others as hopeless and not worth giving another chance. Jesus has told us we are to forgive 490 times. Matthew 18:22 Look it up, get out your calculator.
70 x 7= 490
(note: I won't link the ESV of this verse up there since it changes "seventy times seven" to "seventy seven times"!!) Anyhow, either way, that's a LOT of times to forgive, don't you think? But I wonder how many times beyond that has God gone for me?Makes things look a whole lot different. And it goes back to Hebrews 13:8... God doesn't change. We are always changing and our feelings and even loyalties are like the water flowing in a creek...never the same, always moving and changing. God's love and mercy is like a rock, firm and unmoving.
Lord, help me to be like You, especially when it comes to extending grace to those around me. Help me remember how often, how tirelessly YOU have forgiven me. Let me see others through Your eyes!
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