WHAT TYPE OF "LENSES" ARE YOU LOOKING THROUGH?

WHAT TYPE OF "LENSES" ARE YOU LOOKING THROUGH?

Mark 11:26

26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 18:23-35

23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.[b] He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters[c] from your heart.”

It's amazing how we tend to withhold forgiveness when it comes to others who have done us 'wrong,' but we will take and take some more, of God's forgiveness daily in our own lives after doing Him 'wrong.' Yes, many times, we will rise up with great fervor and intensity, against someone else caught in a sin; but with that same fervor and intensity, we try to justify our own sin! Talk about hypocritical!

Here is the problem: Imagine wearing a pair or rose-colored glasses, and looking at a white rose. Viewing that rose through the lenses of those rose-colored glasses, will make the rose appear to be pinkish in color. You won't see it as it truly is! But once you take off those glasses, you will see the true color of that rose!

Now imagine looking at that same rose through a magnifying glass. Not only will you see the color clearly, but you'll see every intricate detail of that rose with even greater intensity than you could see through the natural eye! It will appear to me much larger than it actually is!

Well you see, we see ourselves through those rose-colored glasses, and others through the magnifying glass! We have to take off those rose-colored glasses, and put up the magnifying glass; and learn how to look through our "spiritual eyes." We have to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance in dissecting our own lives, first-and then He can use us to 'correctly' see into the lives of others! This will help us to remember that just as others aren't perfect, neither are we! It will also help us to more easily FORGIVE others!

And many times the very things we see in others, that causes us to be so unforgiving, are the very things that we need to work on in our own lives! Yes, we see them so clearly in others, because we know them all too well! We are all works in progress! Selah!

Let us not be like the unforgiving servant in today's passage, but like the Master! God bless you!




Copyright © 2011