Forgiving is good for you
November 20, 2015
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Luke 19: 1-10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Loving God, we thank you that you made us for right relationship.
When things go wrong, we know how it feels to be out of sorts,
Stewing inside
Burning with shame.
When we break our bonds, we break our peace.
Teach us how to let go of guilt
Free us from anger and the desire for vengeance.
When you taught us to pray, You taught us that the only limit to your forgiveness is how much we are prepared to forgive others.
We bring to mind now, those who need our forgiveness…….
We acknowledge that to let go of resentment can be like letting go of treasure.
We hold it and nurture it, until it becomes so important to us we can’t let it go.
Free us from its power and fill us with your love.
Let us find the peace of salvation in our hearts today. Amen
prisonersweek.org.uk
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