Thursday, September 12, 2013

Choosing to Make Life Work - 4L -FORGIVENESS, A PATHWAY TO CONTENTMENT


               When we experience contentment, we are able to reflect the "fruits of the spirit of God-- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  God gave us free will to choose the kind of life we will lead.  We are not robots being programmed by God to act in certain ways.  Though we are created in the image of God and persons of worth, we are given the opportunity to make choices between good and evil.  
               There is sin in this world.  We cannot listen to the news and open the newspaper each day without being bombarded by the "sinful ways" we as humans are treating each other personally, in the community,  Church, country and/or the world.  You and I commit sins by the way we speak to one another, the way we judge others, the way we act in our own self interest at the expense of someone else, the way we ignore helping those who are less fortunate than we are, etc.  
                One way we can experience contentment is to practice forgiveness.  We need to begin with “me.”  “If we confess our sins, God is able to forgive us our sins and cleans us from all unrighteousness.”  Only as I forgive myself for those things that separate me from God and other human beings, am I able to forgive others who I believe have hurt me.  Forgiveness, one way to contentment.

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