From Ephesians 4:31-32:  “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”

Life’s battered bucket sometimes overflows

Facing daily challenges, too immense

One challenge standing apart from the rest

Using forgiveness seems much too intense

Our righteous Father teaches forgiveness

Extending His mercy through earnest hearts

Breathe every truth in its entirety

Receiving His grace with humble hearts

Take in God’s Word, His Holy Commandments

Burying bitterness, it lifts the heart

Always best to forgive, forget, move on

Beating with freedom’s light, opens the heart

As humans, reacting much too quickly

Expressing heated anger, fixing blame

Slow to forgive, even more to forget

Stepping now with humbleness, drowns the flames

No longer in the enemy’s darkness

Praying the sun does not set on one’s rage

With our Lord’s truth, filling with righteousness

Following God’s way, life writes a new page

From the words of American pastor and Christian author, Jim Cymbala:  “Looking back over my life, all I can see is mercy and grace written in large letters everywhere.  May God help me have the same kind of heart toward those who wound or offend me.”

Originally published July, 2020.