Monday, October 15
Theme for the week:
Disciples Experience God Through Prayer with a Heart of Forgiveness

Luke 23:34

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
~ Jesus on the cross

Acts 7:60

Lord do not hold this sin against them.
~ Stephen at his stoning

While Jesus has encouraged us to forgive those who sin against us (and is a great example himself on the cross), we have a second powerful example in the first martyr Stephen. While he was put to death by stoning, he prayed Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then, falling to his knees, he cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. When he had said this, he died. Here is a man who, like Jesus, prayed with and for a heart of forgiveness. And who was experiencing this first-hand but a persecutor of Christ-followers named Saul who would later become the Apostle Paul – with his own Christ-filled heart of forgiveness.

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Prayer Prompt

Lord Jesus, forgiveness is such a tender subject, filled with pain, frustration, disappointment and disillusionment. Yet forgiving can be so freeing, even cleansing, capable of putting a bounce in our step. You call us to forgive others as you forgive us. This can only be done with your help. As you have worked forgiveness in me, so also work forgiveness through me. Where healing is needed, provide me with the help of your Holy Spirit the Counselor. Where grief is prevalent, provide me with the help of your Holy Spirit the Comforter. Where forgiving is hard, provide me with the help of your Holy Spirit the teacher. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Micro-Meditation

Psalm 139:7-12

  1. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
  2. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
  3. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
  4. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
  5. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
  6. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

  • Read: the verses twice.

  • Mark: the words or phrases that catch your attention.

  • Meditate: talk (better yet write) with God about those words. Ask him to impress things upon your heart and mind; expect a response from the Lord.

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Pondering Point

No one knows you as well as the One who knit you together in your mother’s womb – no one.

Tuesday, October 16
God’s Mission

Colossian 3:17

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
~ Apostle Paul

To adapt Paul's teaching in Colossians 3, place the word forgiving in the slot of whether in word or deed, do it so that it reads whatever you do, forgive all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

In God’s mission connected to Colossians 3:12-17, we see that God desires the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts, since as members of one body we have been called to peace, so with a new aroma of thankfulness, we are encouraged to forgive as the Lord has forgiven us. Then along with this, we add virtues of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. We top that off with love which binds all this together in perfect unity. Let your choice to forgive be an act of love – an act of “agape” love, one which is sacrificial love, a choice to love even if not being loved back.

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Prayer

Father God, in this moment it is my desire to be a person of forgiveness. Let this moment be like yeast to the rest of my day the rest of my week yes even the rest of my life that I am a person of forgiveness regardless of who is around me and what has been done to me. In this way I will be like Jesus who has forgiven me. In his name I pray amen.

Micro-Meditation for the Day:

Psalm 139:13-14

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

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Teaching or Command of God:

1 Timothy 4:4-5

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. 

The Promise:

Galatians 4:6-7

Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. 

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Pondering Point

Can you accept that no matter what has happened to you, no matter what choices you have made, no matter where you are at, you are wonderfully made?

Wednesday, October 17
Your Identity in Christ

• In Christ, I am forgiven by my heavenly Father and choose to forgive other people when they sin against me.

For assistance in being a forgiving person, see yourself as a person who is a forgiver. This will help overcome any attitude about not being able to forgive. Try to eliminate the mentality that you can't forgive or won't forgive (ugh!) and replace it with the mentality that you are forgiving and will forgive. We view God as a forgiving God because he identifies himself that way. In the same manner identify yourself as a forgiving child of God. This aligns exactly with what Jesus teaches us.

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Prayer

Father God, I am a forgiving person and I am a child of a forgiving God. I look forward to living out my identity by forgiving those who sin against me just like you are forgiving me when I have sin against you. May you be glorified and all I do including my acts of forgiving. Amen.

Micro-Meditation for the Day:

Psalm 139:15

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

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Teaching or Command of God:

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

The Promise:

1 John 3:2

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

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Pondering Point

Oh what tangled webs we may weave in order to deceive, but God weaves us to receive His love.

Thursday, October 18
Re-Center Around God

Matthew 6:14-15

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
~ Jesus, Sermon on the Mount

Review the week

Do you have relationships in which you have been withholding forgiveness or maybe withholding love. Have you been holding onto resentment or bitterness? As a disciple(r), are you setting healthy or unhealthy examples for those watching you? Are you nursing a grievance against somebody rather than overlooking it or addressing it? Are you being hurt by someone else's choosing to not forgive you?

Repent (if necessary)

Ask God to forgive you for not forgiving others. Ask for the Spirit’s help to forgive if you are finding it difficult. Remember that this is a choice that you make under the power of the Spirit. If you are being treated poorly by someone choosing not to forgive you, ask God for assistance in how to manage this and not return evil with evil.

Return (as necessary)

Go through a prayer of forgiveness for each situation in which you find that you are harboring bitterness, anger or resentment. Do not be afraid to ask for help. Consider a key friend or ally who you trust with your struggle or pain and ask for their prayers for or even with you to get through this critical area.

Micro-Meditation for the Day:

Psalm 139:16

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

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Teaching or Command of God:

Isaiah 43:1

But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine… 

The Promise:

Isaiah 43:2

…When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

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Pondering Point

You know loving parents like to watch their children – even before birth, like with the 4D in-utero pictures. But God was WAY ahead of them – YAH-WEH ahead of them in celebrating and loving his kids.

Friday, October 19
Discipleship Point

From Luther’s Small Catechism on the Lord’s Prayer

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that he would give them all to us by grace, for we surely sin much and truly deserve nothing but punishment. So too we will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

Don't lose sight of these words -- in this moment devoting with God – in light of another of Jesus' teachings: If you love me you will obey what I command.

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Discipleship Prayer

Father, forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me. Forgive me my debts as I forgive my debtors. Forgive me my sins as I forgive those who have sinned against to me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Micro-Meditation for the Day:

Psalm 139:17-18

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

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Teaching or Command of God:

Psalm 40:5

Many, LORD my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare. 

The Promise:

Psalm 63:6-8

On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

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Pondering Point

Consider the Psalmist’s point: He (you!) could fall asleep thinking of God’s vast thoughts – counting them as grains of sand. One could fall asleep and then pick up again in the morning, never exhausting the thoughts of God.

Saturday, October 20

Matthew 18:21-35

Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Our story for this week comes on the backside of a conversation about forgiveness between Jesus and his disciple Peter. Peter, in trying to gaining a deeper understanding of forgiveness, asks Jesus about the proper amount of times to forgive another person. The standing rule of the day for some rabbis was three times. So Peter is seemingly quite gracious by more than doubling the standard. But Jesus seems to throw that standard out the window when he uses the term 7 x 70. To expand that perspective, Luke shares a similar wrinkle in which Jesus tells his disciples that if 7 times a day someone sins against you, you’re to forgive them 7 times if they ask. You may know today’s story (or you may think that you know this story) but go read it in Matthew 18 and pay attention to the context. Take note of what is right before it: Jesus talking about 2-3 coming together in his name... people formerly at odds. Now united in Him. This is the goal of forgiveness – unity under Jesus.

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Prayer Prompt

My Jesus, teach me not just how to forgive, but why to forgive. Teach me that one of the goals of forgiveness is to be united under you and to be together under you, to pray together under you, and to seek blessing together under you. Reconciliation and forgiveness are goals worth a strong effort from me to honor you. So I pray in your name. Amen.

Sunday, October 21
Call to Worship God, to Gather Together

God Bless You

1 Chronicles 16:29

Give to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! 

Our true worship says to him that we understand we have been purchased with his son's blood.
~ Jacob Toback
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Prayer for Worship

Ask the Lord if you have been living from a position of not forgiving others or harboring bitterness, and if you are teaching others that it is acceptable to withhold forgiveness. Revisit your witness with God to see make sure that your discipling example is a positive one and not a negative one.

Sponsored by Hope Lutheran Church 

Copyright (c) 2017-2019 Paul vonWerder

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