The poor wretch threw himself at the king's feet and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.'

The past three days have been great. I've been doing some of my old habits of staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning and sleeping til 10:30, it's been so great! As of tomorrow my semester starts and I'll will be going non stop. The latest I'll get to sleep in this semester will be 8 and that's rarely going to happen. So I indulged in my guilty pleasure of staying up late and sleeping in. Now, I feel like going out and saving the world! :-)


The Lord has also used these couple of days to speak to me. Lately, my pastor at church has been preaching about showing compassion rather than condemnation. It's really cool how what has been placed on his heart to preach on the Lord continues by teaching me more about the subject in my study time during the week. Last night I was greatly convicted through a passage I read, Matthew 18:21-35. This is the story of the unforgiving debtor. The passage starts with Peter asking Jesus how often we are to forgive someone. He asked if we are to forgive seven times seven, Jesus replies with, "No, not seven times seven......... but seventy times seven." Jesus then tells a story that is as followed: "The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn't pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.

 "The poor wretch threw himself at the king's feet and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.

 "The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, 'Pay up. Now!'

 "The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' But he wouldn't do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.

"The king summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?' The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy." Matthew 18:23-25

This really reminded me of a few times when I came to God, on my knees, begging him to show me mercy and compassion despite the fact that I screwed up. I can honestly tell you that even though I still had minor obstacles to go through because of my choices, the Lord was faithful to show me mercy and to not give me the punishment that I rightfully earned. Then I KNOW I have shown others less mercy when they have done me wrong. I did not show them the same mercy and love that the Lord has shown me. This is exactly what the Lord says not to do. This passage just confirms that compassion and mercy is what the Lord wants us to give to others. If anything, we're going to be in bigger trouble by condemning rather than forgiving and showing compassion.

I'm not sure about you, but I think I'm going to try changing my focus and doing things a little differently.