Do we give what we want to receive?
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Mathew 18:21-22
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Mathew 18:21-35
Do we give what we receive? We all have moments when we may be more critical or judgmental then we need to be, but how would that make you feel if it was returned on you? I don’t know about you, but I try my hardest to do my best in everything that I do. I know it will never be good enough for some people, but it’s good enough for me, AND IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOD. God wants us to show mercy and forgiveness. Especially to those that have wronged us. Before you act out of anger or spite. Take a second and ask yourself how you would want someone to act towards you in this situation. If you can honestly answer that this is what you would want, then this is the way you should respond in kind.
Take Mathew 18: 21-35 for instance. The servant was not able to pay his debt and asked the master for patience and mercy. The master went even further and forgave all the servants debts. I’m sure the servant was very grateful and thankful. Maybe he even thought “wow what a lucky day I am having”. He then immediately went and threated a fellow servant that owed him money with extreme hatred and greed. Had the servant taken a second to think about how he had been treated by his master and how he was treating his fellow servant, would he have made the same choices? God shows us mercy and forgiveness every day in everything that we do. I ask you are you treating your fellow brothers and sister with the same kindness that God has treated you?
Have you been wronged by someone close to you? It is our human nature to want to get back at, harm, punish, or just make feel the way that they made you feel. Is this what God wants? If you have wronged someone how would you want them to respond to you? Would you ask them for forgiveness, or be to proud? If you did ask for forgiveness. Would you want them to forgive you? Can you forgive someone who doesn’t think they did anything wrong or doesn’t ask for forgiveness? Sometimes the person who has mistreated you is proud, stubborn, arrogant, or flatly believes that they did nothing wrong. The answer of course is, yes. Through God and prayer you can slowly begin to heal your heart and forgive. God wants us to show forgiveness and mercy. The way we respond when we are wronged or when we have wronged someone truly shows the person we are becoming. Take a second and look at yourself and see if there is something that you can work on. Look in your heart and see if you are responding in a way that God would want. Through God and prayer he can help you become the person you want to be.
Prayer
Dear God, Please be with us this week as we go about our day. Please help us to act in the act in a kind and humble manner. Please help us show the same forgiveness and mercy that you have shown us.
Amen
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts. We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us. We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us. And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.
We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name
Amen
A Little More
The other day I got a call from one of our clients.
I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.
“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”
My smile immediately vanished.
I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.
So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?”
To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.
They gave me the details.
My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.
But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.
My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.
I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.
so……
I made sure not to smile when I made the call. I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!
That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.
Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!
Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal. I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad.
Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.
The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.
No problem. Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.
Well……..
After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.
Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.
I told him that I would NOT make any promises.
But my team went to work!
Guess what????
We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.
My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.
Here’s the point of all this.
When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.
That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.
Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol
Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!
Dan Greer