Thermometer or Thermostat?

Many of us have been deeply wounded at a time when we need a loving arm around us and just know our friends care.    I find precious ones who hinder themselves from receiving God's best by feeling unable to forgive.  I have had my tests in this area, and have been found lacking, but I try to fill myself with scriptures of Jesus telling us we must forgive IF we want to BE forgiven.  I know we sometimes feel it's ALL the fault of the other person.  That may be the case, but Jesus forgave us of ALL our sins before we knew we had offended the heart of our Loving God.  In the "Our Father" Jesus clearly tells us to "Forgive US our debts, AS WE forgive OUR debtors (Matt. 6:12).

I have read a number of Corrie ten Boom's books.   For those of you who are not familiar with her, she was elderly when she and her younger sister Betsy were taken by the German Gustapo to Ravensbruk, one of the infamous concentration camps during World War II.  Their family were all killed because of hiding Jews in their home.  The conditions are hard to describe; they had little food, no warm clothing and people were continually being put into the gas chambers.  When ill, no treatment was given to them, and they were harassed.  There was a plague of lice, and Corrie and Betsy praised the Lord for it because it caused the hateful guards to stop coming into their quarters, and they used the time to share Christ with their fellow prisoners, prayed and praised God in the midst of the most horrific conditions imaginable.  Corrie's sister Betsy was frail and one of the German guards was especially unkind to her and Betsy died.  Soon thereafter Corrie was placed on a list to be sent to the gas chambers.  Because of a "clerical error" she was released and for years she called herself a "Tramp for the Lord" as she traveled over the world until she was into her 80's to share Christ. One day in Germany she preached Jesus in a meeting.  Afterward the evil guard came to shake her hand and let her know he had received Christ.  She had a moment to decide IF she was going to forgive or hate him for his evil deeds.  The Holy Spirit graciously quickened to her heart, "...the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:5).

She quickly reached out to shake the hand of that brutal guard who had done such harm to her and the ladies in the camp.  She later wrote "Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart."  I recently read a David Jeremiah devotional quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who wrote from a Birmingham jail, "In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society."

Although those words were written 50 years ago, they still speak truth today. Are we, as Christians, acting as thermometers or thermostats?  Are me rising and falling to the spiritual degree of those around us, or do we set the standard for our environment?  The Bible says to "put away from yourselves the evil person" (2 Cor. 5:13). God knows there are people who hurt us whenever we see them.  It is not wrong to try to avoid being hurt over and over again, but we MUST, with the Grace of the Lord, choose to forgive them.  When we cannot do it on our own, I have often prayed, "Lord, here is my will.  I WILL to forgive (her/him).   I cannot do it myself, but I pray You forgive through me."   God will NEVER take our will, but He will certainly extend the Grace of Forgiveness to us when we ask.

I do not mean to sound "preachy", but I am seeing precious friends and family members suffer because they cannot or will not forgive others.  The sad thing is they themselves pay the price  Another quote from "The Road to Grace" that speaks to my heart:  "To forgive is to unlock the cage of another's folly to set ourselves free."   I pray for the Grace of Forgiveness for all who struggle with this.  Feelings are NOT wrong; holding onto unforgiveness when we can walk in God's grace and allow Him to forgive through us is. The feelings will follow later,  and we will be free.  "And whom the Son sets free, is free indeed!"

I am not sure how long before I move, but I have paid for the Blog site, and will continue to place them here for all who can access them.    I pray someone will print them out to share with those who might benefit.

My love and prayers are with all of you,   Dee