Dave's Diary

Prayer

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 103:10-12:

Lord, please do not treat me as my sins deserve
or repay me according to my iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is Your love towards me;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far have You promised to remove my transgression from me..
Show me Your Way in Your Word, I pray. Amen.

Reading

Luke 23:32-34

Despite His perfect goodness and innocence, Jesus was despised and rejected by the religious leaders, betrayed by a close friend, cynically arrested, falsely accused, unjustly judged guilty and sentenced to death. He was publicly humiliated, mocked, beaten, scourged to within a whisker of death, and finally pinned to two wooden beams in the shape of a cross and hoisted up to hang there until He died from exposure, pain, blood loss or suffocation, whichever came first.

If ever anyone would have been justified in crying out to God to take vengeance on the ones who had done this to Him, it was the crucified Jesus. Yet in that moment Jesus remained true to Himself, true to the Father’s will, and true to everything He had taught. So, instead of echoing the most brutal prayers of the psalmists who cried out for vengeance (eg. Psalm 35, Psalm 69, Psalm 94, Psalm 137) He remained faithful to His mission and instead He prayed the most merciful and gracious prayer ever uttered:

‘Father, forgive them …’

The perfectly innocent One, with every just reason to choose vengeance, chose mercy instead. And this is the example He calls us to follow in relation to those who do us wrong. He calls us to humble ourselves and choose to follow in His footsteps of forgiveness.

Jesus taught us, for example:

‘I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.‘ (Matthew 5:44-45)

‘Forgive other people when they sin against you.’ (Matthew 6:14)

‘(F)orgive your brother or sister from your heart.’ (Matthew 18:35)

Now, hanging on the Cross, He proved that these had not been mere platitudes but that forgiveness was truly His Way of Life.

As disciples of Jesus we are called to follow in His footsteps. In this instance those are footsteps of forgiveness.

Will you follow today?

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• When I am wronged, I will choose to follow in His footsteps of forgiveness.

Holy Spirit, please give me the desire and the power to be like Jesus and to walk in His footsteps of forgiveness today. Amen