Summary: I know a man named Stephen who was treated poorly by someone at work. He was deeply hurt, and soon, his hurt turned into anger. When the person apologized to Stephen, he had two choices: Stephen could remain angry, bitter, and resentful or he could forgive. In life, we will all come to this point at some time, where we must choose to either show forgiveness and grace, or act out our anger and resentment. Stephen ultimately chose to forgive. As Stephen later said, “Forgiving others, even when it’s not easy, is showing God’s love.” And I couldn’t agree more! It’s relatively easy to love people who are good to us, but anyone can do that. We have to rely on God to forgive and love people who have wronged us. The Bible says in 1 John 4:19-21, “We love because He first loved us…whoever loves God must also love his brother.” This week, consider loving others the way God loves. Maybe this means showing forgiveness and grace to someone in your life. Maybe it means offering up to the Lord, through confession, our feelings of bitterness. In any case, I encourage you to love others by showing forgiveness. This is Luis Palau.
