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Tying God’s Hands

There are some verses in Scripture that both excite me and make me nervous. Matthew 6:14 is one such verse: “If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

I am excited by the fact that forgiveness is available for me. Those times when I've blow it and made sinful decisions and done, said or thought something I shouldn't have. Those times I've had a wrong or bad attitude. God's forgiveness is available so that I can remain in good standing with Him.

But there is another part to this verse... the opening word in particular: IF.

The reality is that there are conditions to God's promise of forgiveness. If...

If I don't forgive someone, then God can't forgive me.

We can actually tie God's hands simply because He has put a condition on his provision of forgiveness. I don't always like it. There are times times that I want to hold onto my hurt feelings or keep judging some one's motives or actions. However, doing so puts up a roadblock to experiencing His forgiveness.

That is a place I don't want to be. That is a place you don't want to be. Let's live each day by extending grace and forgiveness in the same way God wants to extend grace and forgiveness to us!

If you don’t know where you are going…

A few weeks ago my wife and I went to visit England for our 20th Anniversary. It was a great trip and we enjoyed the time together exploring. After a couple of days in London using public transportation we rented a car and started out. At the car rental office we asked if they had any GPS units to rent... no luck. How about maps of England that we could buy... strike two. Then the gal at the counter pulls out this old beat up map book, and I mean book. Damage could be done on someones head with this volume! As we wait for the car to be brought to the front door, I start going through the map to; a) figure out where we are, b) figure out where we want to be, c) figure out how to get from "a" to "b."

Just as I start to get my brain around how the map/book is organized, the guy shows up with the car. "Nice little feature, in this car... manufacturer installed sat-nav." HOME RUN!

We get our luggage loaded and then start figuring out the gps system. Plug in our destination, allow it to go through the exact same process I did with the map and off we went! The gps processed the information and route so much faster than I could have with a map! With an incredible amount of trust, we followed every directive that gps unit commanded. As we drove along I remember thinking, "God I told you I want you to be the gps in my life, but thanks for providing one in the car!"

First stop, Stonehenge... or as my wide referred to it: a pile of rocks!

Test Drive Isn’t An Effective Measure

I've heard the argument: "You'd never buy a car without test driving it, why wouldn't you try living together before you get married?"

The look on my face should tell the person who has posed the question that I cannot comprehend their logic, but some have kept pushing. I usually respond with a line about not having a relationship with your car for life and just walk away.

I've heard of different studies over the last couple of decades that have all indicated that living together prior to marriage actually hurts the likelihood of a successful marriage. And it seems time hasn't changed that fact! Here's another study being talked about.

I have to confess, I have a little chuckle each time one of these studies is released. After all, the motive behind these studies seems to be, 'we'll keep trying until the survey says what we hope it will indicate.' People just keep wanting to find an excuse to live for themselves and have all their own needs met, and not worry about being committed to someone else for a lifetime.

Joanna and I just celebrated 20 years of marriage. We ditched the kids and headed to England for 10 days. It was great. We had plenty of time to talk as I drove on the wrong side of the road, from the wrong side of the car. (Only had one close call in about 750 miles of driving!) The commitment we made from the outset was to each other, before God. We've had to work hard at our relationship just like anyone who has built a 20 year marriage. We've learned you can't take things for granted - especially each other.

We started our marriage with the mindset, 'til death do us part' instead of, 'let's see how it goes' and I believe that is why we have built a strong marriage.