Four friends meet over coffee at church. Meant to be a lead in into a sermon or a devotion written by you!
“The Forgiveness We Really Need”
Estelle: Say, Julie, how did things go with you and your sister last week?
Julie: Well, we still aren’t speaking to one another.
Leon: Don’t you think you should do something about that? It’s not right to hold a grudge.
Julie: I did try to do something about it. I went to her house and told her I was sorry if I had done anything to cause the rift between us.
Vaughn: I’m proud of you Julie. But, why aren’t you speaking now? Did she refuse to forgive you?
Julie: Not exactly. She told me she forgave me.
Estelle: That must have made you feel a lot better.
Julie: Actually, it ticked me off. Where does she come from saying she forgives me? What about her part in the argument? It wasn’t all my fault.
Leon: I hate to say this Julie, but if you really listen to what you are saying it sounds to me like you wanted her to say that it was ok, and that you hadn’t done anything wrong. For her to offer forgiveness made you face your true sinful self.
Estelle: I think that’s what we want to hear Jesus say to us, too. “Oh, that’s alright. No big deal.”
Leon: Sure, that’s what we’d like to hear, but to Jesus sin is a big deal.
Vaughn: Big enough that He had to suffer and die to rescue us from God’s anger towards us.
Julie: So I wasn’t really sorry that I hurt my sister, was I? I just wanted to put my selfishness behind me and move on without having to see my spiteful behavior towards her.
Leon: We don’t always recognize it, but our greatest need in life is to see our sin for what it is, and then rejoice in God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
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