Read Through the Bible in a Year 2018 Day 281: Children and Forgiveness

Good morning, everyone!

Today I read Matthew 18-19. In today's reading, Jesus continues teaching His disciples and the people who come to hear Him.

The disciples ask who will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus calls a child to Him and replies:

Matthew 18:3-6 - "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

We must humble ourselves as children.

And we must be very careful what we teach our children.

Matthew 18:12-14 - "What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.

God wants everyone to be with Him in heaven forever. Sadly, sometimes people choose to sin, and choose to be cut off from God. But that's not His will. Ultimately, He wants to find all the lost sheep and bring them back into the flock.

Now, Peter has a well-known question for Jesus.

Matthew 18:21-22 - Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

I may have talked about this before.

Seventy times seven is 490 times. In case this means something like fourscore, we could also say 77 times.

Now, who keeps track of how often you forgive someone?

I don't. Some things are harder to forgive than others, but we're still supposed to do it. Let it go! Let it go!

Sorry. I was singing there for a minute. Got sidetracked.

But you get the point. It's not always easy, but when we know we're supposed to do it, we do it. And every time afterward gets easier.

Or that's how I've found it.

There's a lot more I could talk about, but I'll leave it there for today. I encourage you to read the chapters for yourselves, and leave a comment if you have questions or anything to add.

I hope you'll join me tomorrow when I read Matthew 20-21.