Day 28 of Lent, Saturday, April 5, 2014

             “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
            
                                    John the Baptist, Matthew 3:2 (NRSV)


Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship stated that "cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance."

This is an important statement for today where many people expect their sins to be forgiven without taking on a forgiving nature themselves.  Jesus spoke of the dangers of this in the parable of the unmerciful servant.

What does our inner self begin to look like
when we nurture bitterness toward another?

We pray this each week in worship when we pray the Lord's Prayer,  "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

I've often wondered that if we don't forgive the sins against us - those things which have really wounded us - do we really understand what we're asking God to do?

It seems that Jesus tied these together on more than one occasion for a reason.

During Lent, this is a good thing for us to pray about and maybe we'll understand a little better the depth of grace.





Photo by Jessica Flavin from London area, England (Anger Controlls Him) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons