May 11, 2022

I Samuel 31: 11-13 (NIV)

When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard of what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men journeyed through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall . . . and went to Jabesh, where they burned them. Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree . . ., and they fasted seven days.

You can easily become obsessed with other people’s wrongs against you.*

We know we’re supposed to forgive people when they have done us wrong so we work at it. Lots of prayer and attitude adjustments can get us there. But forgetting is another thing. The damage is done; the consequences may last a lifetime; there is always something there to remind you . . . Why is it, though, that we can recall a person’s bad behavior in such vivid detail that it completely obliterates any good they may have done?

The people of Jabesh Gilead weren’t clueless. They knew the kind of man that Saul had become. But they also remembered and honored the good that he had done for them in his first military action as king* (see I Samuel 11). Because Saul had come to their rescue many years earlier, these brave men of Jabesh Gilead risked their lives to provide Saul and his sons with a proper burial. 

Are you working through the stages of forgiving and forgetting? Perhaps you could accelerate the process if you worked on forgiving and remembering. Ask God to help you find forgiveness in your heart and to help you remember something good about your offender. Replace that painful memory with a positive thought. Does he love his family? Is he generous to others? Is she nice to other people – even if she wasn’t to you? Maybe you used to be friends. Do you have any happy memories of that time? Is this person really all bad? 

Would you like to be remembered for the time you were rude to the cashier at Publix? Do you want to go down in history for making someone cry – even if it was unintentional? Do the mean and hateful things you say define you more than the good and loving ones? Remember the good that other people do and perhaps they will do the same for you.

What if God limited his forgiveness of us based on our forgiveness of others?*