No Limit to Forgiveness

Bible Reading: Matthew 6:14-15; 18:21-22

Emilia was watching TV with her family when her phone began to ding. It was a post from her friend Anna. Emilia opened it and saw a photo that showed Anna and four of their close friends hanging out. Emilia frowned and turned back to the TV.

As the night went on, Emilia received more photos and videos of her friends hanging out without her. “Mom, why are they doing this to me? Don’t they know how it feels not to be invited and then have them practically rub it in my face?”

“My guess is they don’t know you feel hurt and left out by their actions. Just be careful not to say something you later regret.”

Just then, Emilia’s phone dinged with another notification, and she picked it up, sighing. “It’s probably them again.” To her surprise, it wasn’t her friends. It was a notification from a daily Bible verse app. Today’s verse was Colossians 3:13: “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Peeking over her shoulder and seeing the verse, Emilia’s mom said, “Oh, that’s perfect for right now! You may be upset with your friends at the moment, but you should forgive them, just like Jesus has forgiven you. You make mistakes too, just like they do.”

“But I got mad at them last week for saying something mean about the music I listen to,” Emilia said. “How many times do I have to forgive them?”

“Remember the story in the Bible where Peter asks Jesus how many times someone should forgive another person?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Peter thought he only had to forgive someone seven times, but Jesus told him, ‘Not seven times, but seventy times seven.’ Of course, He didn’t mean that we should count every time someone wrongs us and refuse to forgive them once we hit seventy times seven, but rather there’s no limit to how many times we should forgive.”

Emilia sighed. “I’ll ask my friends about it tomorrow—maybe there’s a reason why they were hanging out without me. But even if there’s not, I’ll forgive them.” RoseMary Greany

How About You?

Do you hold grudges against people? Is it hard for you to forgive someone when they’ve hurt you? The Bible tells us to forgive others because Jesus has forgiven us for all our sins. He doesn’t put a limit on how many times He will forgive, and neither should we. There’s no limit to how many times you can forgive someone. Forgive them because you’ve been forgiven.

Today’s Key Verse:
Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive one another
if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive
as the Lord forgave you. (NIV)

Today’s Key Thought:

There is no limit to forgiveness