I just returned with the family from 50 hours on the road for two precious days with my mom in Indiana and an amazing four minutes of total solar eclipse.
A trip such as this, like a microcosm for life, doesn’t happen without some offense, resulting in a need for forbearance or even forgiveness. I need it for sub-par attitude and driving decisions. Similarly I need to forgive the parade float driver who gave my son a light up whistle!
Forgiveness, both asking for it and extending it, is a big part of Ramadan, which has just finished. Abeda Ahmedsays, “Throughout Ramadan, the dua (prayer) that we make the most is, “O Allah, you are Forgiving and love forgiveness, so forgive me. . . .”
The Quran also encourages Muslims to pardon those who’ve wronged them and to endure patiently and forgive, saying, “surely this is a resolve to aspire to.”
While Muslims are taught to pursue the forgiveness of God through diligent and timely prayer, the Bible tells us we’re freely forgiven through the sufficiency of Jesus’s death. At the very center of our faith is the conviction that a person can’t earn the forgiveness of God. We can only appropriate what is graciously offered.
That said, Jesus taught and taught us to pray, in a way that links our willingness and capacity to forgive with our saving faith. John Piper comments on this, “What destroys us is the settled position that we are not going to forgive, and we have no intention to forgive, and we intend to cherish the grudge. . . . It feels good. . . . because he legitimately wronged me.”
As I was writing this, I was convicted of the need to forgive a brother. Maybe someone comes to mind you need to forgive as well. Please take a minute to post your desire to forgive them on this google doc. Be as discreet as is prudent. As others visit the page, they’ll be invited to pray with you for grace to forgive.