Mon.’s Devo - The Power of Forgiveness

Read: 2 Sam. 9:1-11:27, John 15:1-27, Ps. 119:49-64, Pr. 16:1-3 Once David’s kingdom was established he wanted to show honor to anyone who was of the house of Saul and Ammon. He found a cripple named Mephibosheth who was one of Jonathan’s sons and gave him all the land that belonged to Saul and gave him servants and a place of honor at his table every meal. Mephibosheth received it humbly. The house of Ammon couldn’t forgive and trust David so they ended up in battle which cost them many men. What a picture of two types of people. One can forgive and receive kindness freely, the other can’t forgive and can’t trust or discern the goodness of God. Then there is the story of Bathsheba. As much as I love David, he really blew it on this. He took Bathsheba. One of the definitions of that word ‘took’ was to seize. I wonder if she wasn’t taken against her will. Once he had defiled her he sent her home and clearly wasn’t planning on ever seeing her again. When he found out she was pregnant, instead of comforting her he was only looking for an alibi. When his plan to hide his sin didn’t go as easily as he thought, he had to sin even greater and have her husband killed. He did this at the expense of other innocent men in his army. No wonder God wasn’t pleased. In John, Jesus taught us that He is the vine, God is the owner of the vine and we are the fruit. We must be pruned and tended to. To be fruit we have to abide in the vine and let God’s Word abide in us. When we bear much fruit our Father is glorified and He calls us His friends. We are no longer servants, but friends! What a awesome concept. God chose us! We think we chose to love Him, but really He chose us and gave us a heart to love him. We are not the world, we are sons of God! Talk about grace! The devil wants us to live condemned and thinking we can never live up to God’s expectations and God says we are his friend and He is pleased with us. Lord, make us a people who can forgive and receive Your love. Thank you for choosing us and calling us Your friend.