Through God's Eyes

This past weekend's service was "3:16 Forgiveness," and when I saw the title, I knew that God was going to deal with me. In fact, He'd been working on me all week. Last week, I joined a Bible study small group. The leader said they were going to be studying "grace" and to look up some scripture on it before group. The only scripture I knew off hand on grace was 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Now, I've never understood the scripture, but I knew what it said. That day, God started to show me the meaning of that scripture.

Two weeks prior, my husband and I were at our marriage small group where we heard Jimmy Evans' definition of "mercy" vs. "grace." He said that mercy is "not getting what we deserve," and grace is "getting what we don't deserve." He used the example of someone in court pleading for their life. He said that was an example of mercy. He said that what Jesus did on the cross for us is an example of grace. I've often heard that we need to extend grace to others, because God first extended grace to us through His Son, Jesus, but never understood what that meant in a way that I could perform such an act, without being a doormat.

Last week at the small group when we going to talk about "grace," we spent the evening talking about "forgiveness," which was actually what I needed. Now I've always heard, and agree, that forgiveness is your responsibility and the relationship is the other person's (or both, together) responsibility. Our leader that night, said that if we have truly forgiven someone--unless they are a physical, emotional, or mental danger to us--we would want to be in relationship with them. I understood what she was getting at, even if I wasn't sure I agreed with it. As it turned out, I had a friend who said some things that really hurt my feelings. I knew that the Bible said that I needed to forgive her, but I was really struggling with the hurt feelings. I asked the Lord to forgive her; I asked the Lord to bless her; but even then, there was still much hurt inside. One of the ladies at the group that night said to forgive as Jesus forgave: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing," (Luke 23:34). The woman said that my friend may not understand why it hurt me, or perhaps she hadn't learned the same lessons that I had learned. Either which way, I needed to forgive her so that I would be right in God's eyes and as I forgave her, I would be able to see her through God's eyes.

At service this past weekend, Pastor Randy said that the devil comes to accuse us. He said that one of the tricks of the devil is to use condemnation: "If you would have prayed more, believed more, had more faith, read the Bible more, etc., etc., then __________ would not have happened, or you'd be healed by now, or whatever." That was the exact lie I was dealing with, what had hurt my heart. Pastor Randy said that those things are condemnation. At the end of service, Pastor Randy asked (with every head bowed and every eye closed), if there was anyone who needed to be set free of something or needed to fully receive forgiveness of something. If so, raise your hand. I hesitated. I wanted to be free of holding onto this pain, but I was embarrassed. After a few seconds, I raised my hand and said, "Jesus, please forgive me for holding onto something that someone did to me. Please forgive them for hurting me and help me to let go of that hurt." During the commitment song, which was "Amazing Grace," the Holy Spirit whispered to me, "Out of the things that were said to you, much has been revealed. Look at all that you have learned, that I have shown you. Let it go." I tried to reason with God, saying that she needed to understand. He said to me, "I am the only one who can speak to her about it. I'm the only one she'll listen to. Let it go." And I did. As soon as I let it go, I felt a wave of peace wash over me. I felt a flood of love for her fill up my heart, and I saw her for the first time in a new light. I saw her through God's eyes and I felt peace.

The Bible says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them," (Romans 8:28). Things aren't always good. But God knows how to take even the worst things, the most hurtful things, and use them to open your eyes and heal your heart. That's what Jesus did for me. He opened my eyes and allowed me to see through His eyes.