7x70

You know...

One of my favorite verses in the bible is Matthew 18:21-22.
"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked,'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?' Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seven times seventy times."

This is one of my favorite verses because it shows us one of the greatest ways we can love someone: by forgiving them. Please note that in olden days times saying "seven times seventy  times" did not mean 149. It meant 77. So why did Jesus want us to forgive the same person for the same thing seventy-seven times?

I don't know.

But I have a theory.

Its just gonna be one of those questions that we ask when we get to heaven, that is if we aren't too amazed by the beauty of the LORD. What prompted me write this is because someone asked me that very question. I looked at them in deep consideration, trying to formulate a truthful, logical, and WWJS(what would Jesus say) response, and one came to me. I call it the: Get used to it theorem.

If the same person commits the same transgression against you, after they commit this transgression 77 times, then it will just become natural to forgive them, if you had already forgiven them the other 76 times before.

Now to me this makes sense, because we as humans tend to fall into routines, routines become a part of our daily lives-- they become part of us, and natural to do. Should forgiving people not become part of us, and just something we do without thinking? I think so, and I think that the big man upstairs would probably agree. Forgiveness is a gift, it can be given and received. Christ gave us a gift, what was it? Forgiveness for every sin we could possibly commit(except not believing in him before we leave this life). I have noticed that usually I have a song that I accompany with my mini-messages I guess you could call them, so here's today's. "7x70" by Christ August, who is currently going head to head with Phil Wickham fighting to be my favorite artist.

Forgiving someone is all for the benefit of your soul. The fact that YOU might hate someones guts or have a grudge against someone isn't hurting anyone but yourself. Though you might sit around thinking about how and why you have these hateful emotions towards someone, the hated person isn't thinking about how or why you hate them. Why does God dislike hate? Three majorly apparent reasons.
1) When you spend your time carrying unforgiveness around on your back, the weight of it is so large that you will have a hard time carrying your cross. Non-metaphorically: hating distracts you from God.
2) It defiles the most important commandment regarding others: love your neighbor as yourself. Love everyone. No exceptions. Not matter how much you do not like them, love them anyways. Besides, if you are not able to forgive someone else, than obviously, you are not able to forgive yourself. Which is very important, because God has already forgiven you. If the almighty Being that created the heavens and the earth single handedly and everything in between, forgave you for all the stupid stuff you've done... then you should forgive you too.
3) It's hypocritical. If we are called to love, and claim to live a life of love, but we hate, then how is that bringing glory to God? Stop trying to think of ways... because it doesn't hehe. If our life's purpose is to bring glory to God and bring others to bring glory to God, do you think that they will want to do that if they think that we are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites? I sure wouldn't. Just like the words of Gandhi, "I love your Jesus, but not your Christians"
Lots of people like Jesus, I mean come on, He's Jesus, whats not to like, but many people are prevented from loving him because they see the way some of the people who do claim to love him act. So in the words of Paul "Live a life worthy of the calling you have received." can't remember what book or verse, but definitely Paul.
Besides not forgiving someone is choosing not to give God an aspect of your life, God doesn't want part of you... he wants all of You. The good and the bad. You'd be surprised how forgiving someone can change your life. You'd be surprised at the pain and hate that seems to exit your heart.


Because when we choose to forgive, we are choosing to love.