Hi Friends Family! | Weekly Update 7-12-26

Hello Friends Family!

Goodness, this summer is flying by so fast... I mean, where did June go?! But we are here for it, aren't we! It's been a good one for us. I hope it is for you.

Forgiveness is a theme I’ve been studying lately, and it shows up in this week’s Scripture passage, as well. How often do we brush past the fact and reality that God forgives us and requires us to do the same? It is so easy for me to do.

I feel the weight of this most poignantly when Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:14-15 come to mind. Just before verses 14-15 is the Lord's Prayer. Doesn't it seem like we can pray that prayer as though we are rattling off our favorite fast-food order? Yet within that prayer is a petition for forgiveness and the caveat, "as we forgive those who trespass against us." And then verses 14-15 bring laser-like clarity. "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

I don’t know about you, but that Scripture can stop me in my tracks. It is also one I can conveniently forget. I have people in my life who have hurt me. I have people in my life whose choices have hurt those I love. I want to hold on to those offenses as my own way to protect myself and the people I love from ever being hurt that way again. Yet, at the same time, there are people I have hurt. I want to keep a record of all the reasons I didn’t mean to hurt them, and I plead with God to erase the memory and heal the wounds my actions caused. Needing to give forgiveness and deliberating my own need for forgiveness can get heavy when I reason things this way.

But God had David pen in Psalm 103:12: "as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." And right before that, in verse 10, "He does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities." If God treats me this way, and I love it that He treats me this way, how could I withhold this beautiful reality from anyone else? I so need the reminder that Jesus teaches forgiveness this way, so I will continue working through the forgiveness I need to give and the record of wrongs & reasons I need to release to the justice, mercy, and grace of God.

He is true to His promise to help us with all things. I am letting go more and more, and that old angst and heaviness are becoming less and less. Nope, I do not have to jump back into a close relationship with those who did the hurting (God does provide wisdom, too).

What a gift...

He truly is the One who separates us from our sin - as far as the east is from the west.

Let's pray for one another today regarding the hurts that still hold on to us and the offenses that still cling to our minds.

See you tomorrow,

Amy & Your Friends Church Staff Team

Notables:

We are having an Awana Meet & Greet to meet our new Awana Director and share more about this amazing ministry. Details and sign-up are below.

Watch the livestream

here

Watch & listen to past messages

here

Read Colossians 2:11-17