Matthew 18:21-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen Peter came up and said to him, \u2018Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?\u2019 Jesus said to him, \u2018I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.\u2019 \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s heart cannot be understood because His mercy endures forever. The Lord is so long-suffering and persevering in love that it is easy for the sons of Men to take Him for granted. God keeps forgiving and forgiving and forgiving. And despite our weaknesses and failures, He does not cast us away but keeps hoping for a change of heart tomorrow. God\u2019s love is unfathomable. And that\u2019s the heart He expects of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In verse 22, Jesus said to him, \u201cI do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven,\u201d indicating the unlimited number of times God expects us to forgive one another. Forgiveness is divine and those who forgive bear the divine nature. Having been forgiven an innumerable number of times, God\u2019s expectation of us is that we likewise forgive innumerably. For as many as bear His image, forgiveness comes naturally, and if we struggle with forgiveness, then we need to return to the Source, that He may imprint on our hearts afresh, His heart of love and forgiveness. As we have received pardon unlimited times, we must extend the same grace to those who hurt and offend us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFather, I know I can be harsh, but help me always to express Your divine nature of forgiveness at all times. O Lord, even when repeated forgiveness hurts, fill me with Your heart of love so that I can do it naturally. In Jesus name. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 18:21-22 \u201cThen Peter came up and said to him, \u2018Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?\u2019 Jesus said to him, \u2018I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.\u2019 \u201c God\u2019s heart cannot be understood because His mercy endures forever. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Matthew.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4139,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions\/4139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}