*BUILD YOUR FENCE BY LEARNING TO FORGIVE*
Desiring Mercy Devotional
Wednesday 17th May, 2023.
Read Matthew 18:15-35
Matthew 18:21-22 KJVS - Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I FORGIVE him? till seven times?
22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
The Greek Word for FORGIVE is “aphiemi”. Aphiemi ( pronounced af-ee’-ay-mee) means to send forth or to send away. It also means to cry, lay aside, leave, let alone, let be, let go, let have, omit, put away, send away, remit, suffer, yield up. To forgive is to send away an offence. Offences walk up to us in a bid to get to us and destroy us. But in order for us to be smarter than anything that would seek to offend, we need to build walls that do much of the fighting on our behalf. We must surround ourselves with things that speak with our enemies in the gates, even before they get to us.
Psalm 127:5 KJVS - Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Building high walls of personal protection and integrity, for example, preserves us from all sorts of darts and offences that may be thrown at us from various angles.
Proverbs 11:3 NIV - The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
Ask the Lord to enable you to be personally armoured and protected to the extent that your walls can send away offences. Nobody at all should be able to talk to you anyhow. Pray that the Lord reveals aspects of your broken walls to you so that you work at building them, well and high enough so that just anyone does not do things to you that get to you easily. Pray that your clothing, outlook, speech, conversation, work etc will all be highly reflective of the great walls around your life and the Holy spirit who lives within you. Pray that you will be so rich in mercy that your demeanor, appearance and outlook and productivity alone will speak volumes to anyone who intentionally or unintentionally seeks to disturb you.
Become rich in mercy. Become able to afford all kinds of forgivenesses. Become able to let go easily, laying aside whatever wrong people do to you. Become a powerful wall of resistance that sends your offenders away unsuccessful in their attempt to disturb you. Become too strong for anything that is antagonistic to your soul’s welfare and direction, in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
_Desire Mercy_
Anastasia Bruce
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