The Bible says, ”
“Pride will destroy a person”
Proverbs 16:18
Did I read that correctly? Destroy? When I think of destruction I think of something like this.
Or this:
That is pretty powerful. For the Bible to say that pride will cause such a crazy reaction is insane. I’m sure you have been hurt at least once in your life by a family member or friend. How did that end up? Do you have friends or people in your life that you no longer speak too. That the first thing you think of when their name comes up is some situation that caused you to get hurt? What do you think would have been different had they apologized? If you say, “not much”, then what would have been different if you had forgiven them? It is interesting that a few words can lead to so much change. What!? You don’t think so. What is the difference between a person who is married and not. Two words. “I do”
Relationships rise and fall on our ability to apologize and forgive. To simply communicate and understand, as people we aren’t perfect, but are still committed. You might be asking what if this person keeps hurting me. At what point do I say enough is enough. Jesus made it SUPER simple. If you are good at math this will be fun. Jesus broke it down with a word problem.
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someones who sins against me? Seven times?”
22 ”No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven
Lets look at that:
7×70=490
Lets say we were to forgive someone 490 times in a day what would that look like a month.
490×30=14,700
Wow, that is a lot of forgiveness in a month. Can you imagine how much forgiveness that would be for a year.
14,700×12=176,400
You would be rich if those were dollars. Just for fun lets see what a lifetime of forgiveness looks like. Mind you this is one person and one situation.
176,400×75=13,230,000
Even if Jesus was being literal, and he wasn’t meaning 490 times a day but overall. That is still a heck of a lot of forgiveness and would probably do as much or more for our perception or understanding of a person and/or situation as it would bring change to it. Anytime you feel the desire to walk away from a situation hurt or from a friend who is hurt, just remember, you have activated an atomic bomb that can and will destroy.
