Forgive us, O Lord, and mend our wounded hearts. Repair our damaged lives and strengthen our troubled souls. May we abide in your peace, love and joy.
If God doesn’t keep score, how can I? Father, help me wipe away any pain, anger or disappointment still harbored in my heart. May I be as generous with my forgiveness as you are with yours.
Father, help us tear down the obstacles in our strained relationships. Show us how to remedy the tension between us and those who have hurt us or those we have hurt. Help us to forgive and to be willing to ask for forgiveness from others. Fill our hearts with love for all people, even those who have caused us pain.
In some families, please is described as the magic word. In our house, however, it was sorry. [Margaret Laurence]
God of Second Chances, thank you for your love and forgiveness. As you have forgiven me, help me to forgive myself. Let me leave my guilt behind and start this week with a clean slate.
Parents spend a great deal of time and effort disciplining children. Since we are God’s children, we need to understand that He, too, will discipline us. Because a loving parent lets his children learn from their mistakes, God’s discipline will often involve allowing us to suffer the consequences of our sins. If we repent of our sin, God forgives us, but God’s forgiveness does not free us from the adverse effects of our actions. Sin has repercussions and forgiveness does not shield us from its impact.
In spite of knowing everything about us, God loves us. He knows our weakness and failures, our flaws and sins. He even knows our deepest darkest secrets. And yet, God loves us simply because He made us and we are His. This knowledge of God’s grace truly is too great for me to comprehend! Thank you, God, for loving your children no matter how unlovable we may happen to be.
How unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us; or enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us. [A. W. Tozer, from “The Knowledge of the Holy”]
Devotions of the Heart 