Good morning and welcome to the first snow fall of winter.... a good day to catch up, if you have missed any days.
We continue with the life of Joseph in Genesis 48-50 and discover the "Pathway of Forgiveness."
Someone is going to hurt you next week. They will unintentionally or deliberately pull back their verbal bow and shoot an arrow right into your heart. Joseph knew about these arrows. He had many of them shot into his heart. Betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery by his own flesh and blood, he knows about relational pain. He also knows about the pathway of forgiveness.
A quick list of dead ends that are cheap imitations of forgiveness:
a. Forgetting. People who try to forget find they can't. People think that time heals all wounds. This is not true, and if you are relying on forgetting it will only lead to a dead end.
b. Tolerating. Pretend you are a doormat and allow people to wipe their feet all over you. Becoming passive is not forgiveness.
c. Thinking of your favorite things. Singing the song of Mary Poppins will not bring you to the pathway of forgiveness.
Joseph shows us the only pathway through his life.
a. Feeling the pain. Some of you have been terribly hurt by mean spirited people. Parents, siblings, family members have done unspeakable things to you. Your pain might even exceed Joseph's. Feeling this pain is the first step towards healing, because this pain will become the fuel that drives you to Jesus.
b. Experience God's vertical forgiveness. Because each of us has sinned we have a million dollar debt with God. The vertical problem if left unresolved will mean we will live eternally separated from God. But God in his mercy has sent his son to take the death penalty we deserved. Now God requires us to forgive the 100 dollar horizontal debts with people, because of the million dollar vertical forgiveness we have experienced.
c. Assume the cost of the injury. Forgiveness is agreeing to live with the consequences of another person's sin. Forgiveness is costly. You pay the price of the evil you forgive. You're going to live with those consequences whether you want to or not; your only choice is whether you will do so in the bitterness of unforgiveness or the freedom of forgiveness. Remember Jesus' love for us caused him to assume our cost.
d. Make the courageous choice. Forgiveness is a choice, a crisis of the will. Since God requires us to forgive, it is something we can do. Don't wait to forgive until you feel like forgiving, you might never get there. Feelings take time to heal. We need to make the choice to forgive. What will be gained is freedom, not a feeling.
e. Finally releasing all bitterness. Choose to release all bitterness and anger and ask God to heal your damaged emotions. This is the pathway Joseph traveled down. This is God's pathway towards freedom. Walk on his pathway today.
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