Growing Richer With God Daily Devotional

Forgiving My Biggest Bully

Wednesday, August 10 (Happy birthday, dad!)


READ: Matthew 18:21–31

So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.” Matthew 18:35 (CSB)


I was picked on as a kid. I suspect it was the regular sort of stuff in elementary school, but it got very mean in jr. high (grades 7-9). Many times, I have worked through forgiving the kids who treated me cruelly – you know the 77 times 7 times. But there was one bully that has been much harder to forgive.

Myself.

I have learned one thing about bullies: bullies bully. It’s classic and you can see it in countless movie plots. The most apparent is in the 2006 kids flick, The Ant Bully. In the movie the main character, a kid named Lucas is bullied by a bigger kid. So he looks for someone else to take out his frustrated aggression on and ends up torturing ants.

But he is visited by the ant colony’s shaman at night and is shrunk to ant size through magic.

It’s a journey of learning, as I’m sure you can imagine – and it’s a good thing he learns his lesson as a kid because kids who are bullied turn into tyrants as adults.

The parable Jesus is teaching here is layered. There is a lesson about gratitude, forgiveness, and mercy. In another place, Jesus gives this command, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)

The question is then, what do you do if you hate yourself?

I don’t believe there is any substantive difference between treating someone else poorly like the servant in the parable or treating yourself poorly.

I also don’t think there is any difference between forgiving yourself 77 times 7 times or forgiving someone else that many times.

If we are to truly love others, then we must start with a love for ourselves.

Now, this may seem like a dangerous message in a world filled with self-love. But I would argue that the self-centred individualistic love we see in culture isn’t even close to love. It’s self-lust at best. It’s idolatry and not at all what I am talking about.

(Imagine if we applied 1 Corinthians to ourselves like we try to do with our friends and family.)

The problem is that either we don’t understand the severity of sin and gloss over the necessity of Jesus’s victory on the cross, or we live under a weight of sin that paralyzes our potential – even after we have been forgiven!

Both are in direct contradiction to this parable!

I am acutely aware of my struggle with sin – but it is difficult not to stray into either one of these ditches. Still, I know that I am both a sinner and a beloved, forgiven child of the King. Both realizations give me considerably more grace for my companions in life.


Worship – Ultimately, the result of both receiving and extending forgiveness is joy! This is the message of the song “Repent (What a Joy It Is).” The song appears on The Worship Initiative’s latest album and is performed by Davy Flowers.


Happy Birthday Dad!

Me and dad bonding.

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