#lighttheworld Day 18

Today's scripture is Matthew 6:14, which is found in chapter six of the gospel written by Matthew. As usual for in context reading, Matthew 6 is a part of the sermon on the mount, where Jesus taught his followers about a variety of things. Within the paragraph Matthew 6:14 is found, he is teaching his followers about prayer.

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

A whole post could be done on just one verse, but today we talk about forgiveness :)

The light the world website has the following applications:
Does someone really get on your nerves?
Write down all of that person's positive qualities, and then try to imagine how God sees him or her.

Do you have a family member or friend who’s offended you?
Give the person a call, and resolve your differences.

Do you have unresolved differences with someone?
Don't let anger or regret fester. Take action to work it out.

On that note, i'll give my own application, after a message from Paul in 2nd corinthians 2:5-11
5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9 Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Allowing anger or resentment to fester will never lead to happiness. We must make amends with people before bitterness destroys our important relationships.

Not only will anger destroy important relationships, it destroys all of them. How can you have a healthy social life, if your holding onto anger, or any kind of resentment? It boils, and it causes you to vent on others, talk about people behind their backs, and even say things you will regret later.

But you know you care about this person your angry at, otherwise you wouldn't be angry at all. You want them to love you, and care about you, and spend time with you. So how will being angry help? Do you think hurting them like you were hurt will help?

It won't, so the best thing you can do is forgive the person, by letting go of what you want, and accepting any outcome. You did your best.

If your religious, or believe in Jesus, you can take this one step further and pray. Give the situation to God, and ask him to either redeem the situation, and the relationship, or to give you wisdom on how to proceed.

Fear destroys relationships as well, have you ever felt too afraid to open up to someone, or scared they would reject you, and run from you? Well, i've experienced this. Sometimes the situation was born from anger, i did or said something that I later regretted, and then became afraid I couldn't fix it, or that the person would never forgive me. The worst part was, I had already said so much, and made the situation so awkward, there was nothing I could say, or do that would help.

Regardless, any situation can only get better, worse, or stay the same. The best policy i've found, is to forgive all parties involved, let go of an expectation held, and just pray.

But most of all, just be honest with someone, tell them what's truly on your heart, take a chance and tell them what you really think, what you really feel, maybe they will believe you, maybe they will love you, maybe they will forgive you too, it's the only thing that allows healing. When you lay your heart bare before someone, cry your eyes out and say i'm sorry, and just ask to be understood, the only response they can give is mercy, love, and understanding.

So please, go treat someone the way you would want to be treated, and forgive them as you would want to be forgiven :)

Thanks to @gavvet for starting the steemit branch of #lighttheworld and another special thanks to @hanshotfirst for being encouraging :)

Another special thanks goes out to a special someone who helped inspire today’s message, thanks for forgiving me :)