Father God, remind us that forgiveness is the very focal point of the gospel message. Jesus paid for it with His life. We sadly take it for granted because of the quick access we now have to it with You. Help us to not take it for granted. May we never cheapen Your grace because we can now come into Your presence anytime.
Give us an abundance of patience and keep us from looking for quick fixes when it comes to being reconciled with one another. Help us to understand the suffering of people who have been hurt. Lead us to repentance, not just to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. Help us to see things from Your perspective first.
Holy Spirit, help us to go the extra mile even after we feel like we’ve done enough. You test us to see if we have truly surrendered to You in the hard work of reconciliation. Help us to look to You for help, knowing that we can’t really do any of this on our own. Without You, we would just give up.
Lord Jesus, we don’t really get the full impact of a misunderstanding and a false accusation until we have been misunderstood and falsely accused ourselves. You understand both perfectly well because You were misunderstood and falsely accused. Your flesh was torn and You died to take our place instead, so that we become the righteousness of God.
Father God, keep us from constantly forgetting that there is nothing we can ever say to justify ourselves before You. You are the one true God and we have no justification for anything in Your presence without Jesus as our advocate. Help us to turn our life around from being slaves to sin to becoming slaves to righteousness, so we can have the free gift of eternal life with You.
Lord Jesus, may we draw close to You in humility and in selflessness as we consider others better than ourselves. Help us to place a greater emphasis on the wellbeing of others, even when we pray and intercede on behalf of our brothers and sisters. Teach us to do it out of great love the way You do it rather than a sense of forced duty.
Father, Son, and Spirit, help us to see that unrepentant sin and unreconciled relationships usually cause recurrent sorrow and misfortune. Give us opportunities to make things right. Give us the mind and character of Jesus as we put others before ourselves. We cannot do this in our own strength; orchestrate daily details and keep us dependent on You alone. Change us from being selfish to being sacrificial. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
