
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you” (Luke 17:3-6).
Forgiveness . . . It can be easy to receive but incredibly hard to give.
When we’ve been hurt by others, those mental wounds don’t always heal, nor do they always turn to scars. No, sometimes they remain open wounds that continually fester and pain us. We hold on to those wounds and that hurt, despite the agony. Sometimes we carry those fresh wounds with us our whole lives and we ask, “How can I possibly forgive them for what they did to me? They said they were sorry and asked for forgiveness, but I don’t think I can . . .”
But that’s exactly what God calls us to do as his children.
Is it any wonder that the apostles exclaimed, “Increase our faith!”? They thought that their inability to forgive a brother or sister for sinning against them, as much as seven times in the same day, had to do with the size of one’s faith. One or even six times, okay, the average believer could manage that, but the seventh time? That was too much.
How often I think that too. My faith has to be rock-solid and the size of a colossal iceberg in order for me to forgive or to follow and do what God calls me to do as his child.
Jesus redirected his disciples’ focus and ours too. With faith the size of a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds, one can say to a mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey you.
It’s not the size of our faith that matters.
We’re not looking at ourselves. What matters is the object of our faith: our Savior Jesus. We’re looking at him. We’re holding on to him and his perfection. His unwavering ability to forgive and his steadfast love for us, not just seven times in a day, but every second of every day.
All of our sins have been forgiven. We don’t deserve that. Perhaps the people who wronged us don’t deserve to be forgiven either. But the takeaway, dear Christian, is not “Jesus forgave us, so as Christians we should have no struggle in forgiving others in the same way.”
The takeaway is to focus on our Savior and the undeserved forgiveness he pours out on us every day. When we’re focused on Jesus—when we consider how much we have been forgiven by him, what he did to set us free from our sins, including our inability at times to forgive others—that changes our perspective, doesn’t it?
We respond to Jesus’ love and forgiveness for us.
And we ask him to do what only he can do because we are sinful human beings. We struggle to forgive, even when we know that’s what we’re called to do as Christians. Sometimes we struggle with that our whole lives.
Turn our eyes to you, O Lord. Forgive us when we struggle to forgive. Draw us closer to you and continue to work on our hearts through your Word and sacraments. Fill our lives with reminders of the grace you show us every day—of the forgiveness won at the cross. Heal what wounds we carry until the day you call us home. Help us forgive others, as you have forgiven us. Amen.
Conflict is bound to happen in life. A Heart at Peace: Biblical Strategies for Christians in Conflict offers you a biblical blueprint for resolving conflict and breaking down the hostility that can cause you so much tension and stress.

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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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