“And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16).

You must expect the best from people as well as the worst. The best person can do you the worst evil and the worst person can do you the greatest good. You must have both expectation of the best and the worst of people no matter who they are or how close they are to you if you hope to live free without disappointment. When you give the wrong appointment to people in your life you cannot avoid being disappointed.

Who you appoint is who would disappoint you. You have to be careful of the appointment you give people in your life so you won’t be disappointed. Only God is worthy of the highest appointment in our lives because only He cannot disappoint us so we can always expect the best from God and not the worst.

Forgiveness is a spiritual matter. Actually, it takes Grace to forgive. But this Grace flows easily when we have the right scriptural understanding and wisdom (Colossians 3:13-15). Forgiveness is always the posture of God towards us and mankind in general. You cannot live in forgiveness if you have not understood the forgiveness of God. The truth is, some Christians are only born again without understanding forgiveness.

Understanding the forgiveness of the cross is an encounter we all must have as part of our salvation experience (Romans 4:7, Ephesians 1:7, 4:32 Colossians 1:4, 2:13, 3:13). When you understand how God forgave you, what God forgave you and the posture of God (towards you) who forgave you, you would begin to come into scriptural understanding of forgiveness and begin to tap into the wisdom for living a life of forgiveness.

You cannot give what you don’t have. You can only truly forgive to the measure that you understand the forgiveness of Christ, and most importantly, have received that forgiveness. Have you received the forgiveness of Christ or you are still wondering whether He has forgiven you or not? The truth is, in Christ, you have been forgiven (Colossians 1:14, 2:13)! In Christ, your sins are pardoned (Romans 4:7)! In Christ, you do not have a past (2 Corinthians 5:17)! Your sins and unrighteousness God has vowed never to remember again (Hebrews 10:16-17)! Do you believe this? Have you received this? If you do, then you are on the path of receiving Grace to forgive (Luke 7:47-48).

May you come into an awareness of God’s love and forgiveness today in Jesus name!

© ‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria