Are You Still Keeping the Receipts? | Mornings with Mico

Go people, what's happening? My name is Miko and welcome to my 101 time with God today. Today we are, today is day three of our forgiveness devotion. We've been just kind of exploring some different passages in scripture around the topic of forgiveness. Day one, we talked about the standard, you know, forgiven as we forgive. Day two, we talked about the weight of forgiveness and what unforgiveness does to the heart. Today, we're talking about the model of forgiveness, right? How does God forgive? And, um, we'll be talking from this passage in Colossians. Um, I'll just dive right in. Let's see. Colossians three, um, chapter three, verse 13, it says, um, bear with each other and forgive one another. If one of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And I think you'd be hard pressed to search the scriptures and not run across this concept of, um, forgiving as God forgave, you know, us forgiving as God forgave. I think, um, that's just, that's at the core of our faith. That's at the core of the, why does it really not like a, a why that trumps that why, right? Like forgive because he forgave. But I think it's not just, um, telling us the why, but also when saying forgive as the Lord forgave, it's also talking about forgive the way he forgave. Um, God doesn't call us to forgive people simply because they deserve it. That's, that's them deserving. It isn't even a part of the consideration. I don't even think that's factored in at all. We forgive because we were forgiven when we didn't deserve it. But if we're going to forgive like God, um, we do have to understand, you know, how God actually forgives because God's forgiveness, it isn't vague. Um, it's actually quite specific, right? God forgives by releasing the debt point blank period, simply put that is the way he forgives by simply releasing the debt. Now, not that's not ignoring the debt. That's not pretending like it didn't happen. And that's not minimizing the cost. That's not, that's not what he means when he's, um, releasing us the debt, he acknowledges the full weight of it. And then he chooses not to hold it against you. That's literally what his forgiveness is. It's a decision to say, yes, you owe me, but I'm choosing not to collect. It is this continual posture of dying to your right to hold on to the offense. And God didn't just choose not to collect. He actually absorbed that cost. The cost didn't disappear. Um, it was carried and nailed to a cross, right? That's why scripture says he doesn't count our sins against us. Not because they don't matter, but because he chose not to keep the record. And when we compare that to how we forgive, right? We

say we forgive, but we still keep the receipts. We, um, we continue to bring it back up. We hold it in the reserves. We, um, we let it shape the way that we treat people moving forward. Um, we let it impact our heart and we let it, you know, impact, um, the way that we show up in different spaces. Um, but God, God doesn't do that. God, he, he completely releases it. He fully and decisively, um, does so without keeping score. That's, that's his model. That's the model of how God forgives. That's the model of his forgiveness by fully releasing by fully dying to his right to hold onto the offense by forfeiting his right to collect the debt. And I think that's what makes this hard for us, man, if I'm honest, because most of us, we want to be forgiven like that, but we're not so willing to actually become someone who forgives like that. Selfishly, we want grace. We want understanding. We want, you know, to be considered, um, we want forgiveness, but we aren't so willing to sow those seeds of grace, of forgiveness, of understanding, of consideration. We cling just so tightly to, um, onto to hold on to our own offense. And I think partially it's because we tend to just be so self-absorbed and we can't see beyond how the offense has impacted us. Um, not necessarily considering the implications. of what extending forgiveness can actually do for someone else something that God is Continuously teaching me and he'll be continuously teaching you if he's not already pouring this into you then I'm I Don't know why I don't know how he's not but something that he's continuing to teach us Long in his walk is that it ain't even always about you. I know for me, um One way that God was really Showing this to me a few years ago. I was having was just having some issues with a family member and You I don't know if you got one of those uncles where it's just like they just think they better than you and all What you ain't you did this wrong? you did that, you know what I'm saying like that kind of like that kind of energy or whatever and I Was talking to God about it. Um, I remember I was in a bathroom cleaning up and I was talking to God about it and The way I described it is I was like God I feel like I'm in this mud fight with someone and I'm covered in mud But my hands are clean because I'm not throwing any mud back at him. I'm just taking it right like I'm not even Getting back into the fight with them. I'm just I'm just covered in mud

And I believe the Holy Spirit It led me to this scripture like immediately as soon as I'm having this conversation with God The Holy Spirit just placed the scripture on my heart and it's in Philippians chapter 2 starting at verse 5 It says in your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage Rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in Appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross When I read this Like the Holy Spirit was saying to me go In this situation your hands being clean, I'm I'm not even gonna address that But is your claim to being right to being clean? greater in Jesus's claim to being God and Obviously the answer is no, right He says then if Jesus is willing to humble himself and die to his God status in order To benefit someone else To reconcile people back to Christ. I mean back to God He's willing to go to be obedient to death even death on a cross if he's willing to do all of that to take all Of this for the benefit of someone else why won't you Why won't you humble yourself Family this forgiveness things it's it's not One it's not all about us And two it's not that we forgive because people deserve it It's because he did it for us. Even when we were still sinners and sometimes And sometimes and forgiving the way that Jesus forgives it's also simply going to be with that same heart posture of humility and Not even often. It's always going to be from a posture of humility From a posture of humility not simply about how it benefits us. But because God this is me aligning myself with you And Lord if there's a way for someone else to be impacted in a way That leads them to Christ that leads them to God through me forgiving

And just like Jesus laid down his God status For the betterment of other people Lord I'll lay down my right my claim to being right for the betterment of someone else your kingdom Sometimes I know that's That's not always the sexiest answer but at the end of the day man Sometimes it's just truth Want us to take some time today and just reflect and um, think about how God has forgiven you not abstractly but personally Think about where am I holding others to a standard that God doesn't even hold me to What are some things that he's covered in your life That you aware of maybe no one else even knows but you're aware of that. You know God, I need that covering I needed you to forgive that to forgive me of that, right? I Want us to choose to remember those things today not in order to condemn us But I want us to use Those memories to help I want us to leverage them as weight and shame of guilt of what we've been forgiven for to grow us in gratitude for the goodness that we've received in exchange and let that gratitude be fueled to help us extend that forgiveness to others. Say that again. Let's choose to remember those things today not to condemn ourselves but to leverage the weight and shame and guilt of what we've been forgiven for to grow us in gratitude for the forgiveness that we've received in exchange and let that gratitude be fueled to help us extend that forgiveness to others. I'm gonna pray this out. Lord, thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for forgiving me fully, not partially, not conditionally. Thank you for your gift of grace that I get to lavish in abundantly and help me to not just be a reflection of you and of that grace but to be a vessel that it flows through. That it may impact someone else's life as it also brings healing to my heart. Pray this in your son Jesus' name. Amen. See y'all tomorrow.