²¹ Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

²² “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

²³ “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. ²⁴ In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. ²⁵ He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

²⁶ “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ ²⁷ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

²⁸ “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

²⁹ “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. ³⁰ But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

³¹ “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. ³² Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

³⁵ “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

Matthew 18:21-35

Dear God, it’s been several hours since I first read these verses and now I’m coming back to really try to dig in on them. I’ve kind of percolated on them all day. How much am I really aware of how much you’ve done for me? And I’m not talking just about forgiveness for my sins, which is tremendous. I’m also talking about all the blessings in my life I take for granted.

• I was telling a friend at lunch today that I completely take my wife’s and my health for granted. It would only take one health event to rock our world.
• My wife and I both have stable employment and income. I know I take that for granted.
• You greatly provide for the nonprofit where I work, and no matter how much I try to give you credit and glory for it, I know that I still don’t do it enough.
• I live in this totally unique country in the history of the world where we can be at war and there is zero impact on my life outside of a relative being deployed and my gasoline being more expensive. My life is shockingly soft. Honestly, I don’t even know if that’s a good or bad thing.

Father, I think what all of this really means is I need to remember that to whom much is given much is expected (Luke 12:48). That means I not only need to be generous with my forgiveness, but also my resources and my time. That starts with being generous in all of that with my wife and then going from there. Show me the way, Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.

I pray this in Jesus and with the Holy Spirit,

Amen