Being Gracious to Others
There are many days when I make mistakes. I choose incorrectly, spell or say things incorrectly. Times when I am not wise in the words I choose, the love that sadly does not come out of me as much as it should.
We all make mistakes. Have you ever said something that someone was taken the wrong way? I have. I didn’t mean what they thought I meant but alas it was said and they thought I was being critical.
I often reflect upon Peter, Jesus’ head apostle, who denied Christ three times. What a big mistake but He came back from the brink of disaster.
So if God can still use Him, He can still use us.
How does God do that?
It’s His Mercy. It’s there every day for us. New every morning as stated in Lamentations.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
Lamentations 3:22-23 NRSV
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I don’t want to take this for granted and use it as an excuse to cover my wrong.
The wonder of grace from God is that He can use our worst failures and produce our best! He can produce good out of them.
Romans 8:28 shows us this truth.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 NRSV
Also in the book of Psalms it says:
Our steps are made firm by the Lord,
Psalm 37:23-24 NRSV
when he delights in our way;
though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong,
for the Lord holds us by the hand.
We might stumble, scrape our hands and knees but not fall totally because of God’s Saving Grace. He is holding our hand. He is making all things right when He delights in the way we are trying to live right.
How gracious is Our God towards us! So, we should be gracious towards others who make mistakes that affect us.
Love your neighbour as yourself and so hold judgement very lightly unless we be judged by the brush we paint with.
May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’
Love
Rosemary
Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Have you ever said something that was taken the wrong way? What did you do to correct it?
How does it make you feel to know that God blesses us with grace and forgiveness when we make mistakes?
Have you shown grace to someone else when they made a mistake? Do you think it made a difference to your relationship?