Forgive the Person, Not Their Actions
First15 Devotional
First15
4.9 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2021
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we continue our weeklong focus on forgiveness by looking at the idea of separating out our forgiveness of the person from their actions. It’s often our failure to do this separation that keeps us from engaging in the lifegiving command to forgive. But God has wisdom and revelation for us today as we look at his word, and freedom for our hearts today if we’ll engage with him in prayer.
May you find newfound freedom from the weight of unforgiveness today.
Our Scripture for today comes from John 13:34, and today's worship is New Wine by Terrian.
Check out our Worship for the Weekday playlist on Spotify!
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As believers, we want a real connection with God every day, not just on Sunday. We want the peace and passion that comes from living with God, not for God. But when Monday morning rolls around we’re left thinking:
“Now what?” “How do I find and keep a daily connection with my Creator on my own?”
At First15, we know that meaningful worship isn’t just for Sunday. Every believer should be able to find a daily connection to God with fresh worship created specifically for their weekday.
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First15 is a daily devotional written and recorded by Craig Denison. If you would like to learn more about the First15 app, books, blogs, videos and our other resources, please visit first15.org. You can always reach out to us on our contact page on the website.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In today's podcast, we continue our week-long focus on forgiveness by looking at the idea of separating out our forgiveness of the person from their actions. |
| 0:13.0 | It's often our failure to do this separation that keeps us from engaging in the life-giving command to forgive. |
| 0:25.1 | But God has wisdom and revelation for us today as we look at His Word, |
| 0:28.5 | and freedom for our hearts if we'll engage with Him in prayer. |
| 0:33.0 | May you find newfound freedom from the weight of unforgiveness today. |
| 0:49.5 | Welcome to the First of teen podcast. Our verse for today comes from John 1334, which says, |
| 0:54.2 | A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. |
| 0:58.9 | Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. |
| 1:05.5 | One of the most important distinctions to make when learning about the practice of forgiveness |
| 1:10.5 | is to forgive the person, not their actions. about the practice of forgiveness is to forgive the |
| 1:11.9 | person, not their actions. Playing the sequence of someone's wrongful action over and over again |
| 1:18.0 | in the mind is a terrible hindrance to obeying God's command to forgive. When we continually reflect |
| 1:25.3 | on how wrong an action was, our thoughts act as a blockade between our hearts and God's heavenly compassion. |
| 1:33.3 | John 1334 tells us, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. God forgives us because |
| 1:47.9 | he loves us, not because our actions are ever worthy of forgiveness. He forgives us because he |
| 1:54.5 | values restored relationship with us over our sins. He forgives us because he is filled with love for us, not because our acts of |
| 2:03.7 | confession demand forgiveness from him. And he says, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one |
| 2:11.4 | another. When Peter denied Jesus three times, he offered him relationship and another opportunity to serve him. |
| 2:20.3 | When Thomas was filled with doubt, Jesus offered him his nail-pierced hands. |
| 2:25.3 | And when we sin against God, he offers us forgiveness that we might receive the full depths of his love again. |
| 2:33.3 | Luke 637 says, Judge not and you will not be judged. |
| 2:38.5 | Condem not and you will not be condemned. |
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