Daily devotional

Matthew 7:1 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged.”

John 8:7 b ESV

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Those 2 verses (3 chapters apart) go together extremely well and could be followed up with Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” None of us are perfect, all of us will sin. We must learn to do like the Lord does for us and go to grace, to forgiveness. No, we shouldn’t always leave ourselves open to repeat offenses, but we must forgive, for as the Lord’s prayer says “forgive me as I forgive others”. That one hit me hard for the first time at 12 years old (Confirmation class) when the pastor asked us to think about all the grudges we were holding and if we wanted God to copy our lack of forgiveness. (Remember this was in the hellfire and brimstone age of preaching) and it scared me to death. Did God hate me for saying I hated my sisters for picking on me? Was I going to hell, never forgiven, for still being mad at the kid behind me in class that kicked my chair? What would He do to me for not liking that girl at school who teased me? I learned to forgive that day, still catch myself holding grudges sometimes but now I know that if I want forgiveness, I had better get good at doing it myself.