Restoration


When Job prayed for his friends the Lord restored his fortunes.
Job 42:10

One of the hardest things we probably have to do as Christians is to forgive those who sin against us – especially those who have wrongfully accused us. Job knew what it was like to suffer the pain and humiliation of losing everything, through no fault of his own. He was a good man, faithful to God in every way, so much so that God trusted him to go through the most awful testing, knowing that he would remain faithful. That is a very difficult thing for us to understand, but it happened. Because it happened before, it is quite possible that it still happens today!

People, good people, do suffer incredibly hard things at times. They may fall prey to sickness or disease, they may lose a child or a beloved spouse before time, they may lose their money, job or even their good reputation.

Job’s friends assumed that his problems were a result of his sin and that God was judging or punishing him. How wrong they were! When Job finally came through his trials with his faith still strong, God spoke angrily to Job’s friends for wrongly accusing and judging Job and adding to his misery. He then told them to prepare a sacrifice and go to Job and ask Job to pray for them to be forgiven. Another test for Job! He prayed for his friends and look what happened. The Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he’d had before.

Forgiveness releases God’s blessing in our lives in a way that we can’t really understand, but we know it is true. On the other hand unforgiveness will block the blessing of God every time. This is good incentive for us to walk in love and be very willing to quickly forgive those who sin against us. We surely don’t want anything in our lives that will stop God’s blessing from coming to us.

In what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” Jesus taught us to pray “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” (Matthew 6:12). At that end of that prayer Jesus goes a step further. He tells us (vs 15) that if we will not forgive others then God cannot forgive us. Mmmmm…. Now that’s food for thought!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you that your way is the way of blessing. Help me to receive your grace to forgive those who hurt me so that nothing blocks the forgiveness and blessing that you have for me. Amen