SHADYSIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Gracious God, most of us are pretty good at forgiving the one-time offense.  Maybe we are even good for two or three times.  But you have called us to just keep forgiving.

This would seem heroic until we remember that you invite us to forgive not for the sake of those who hurt us, but for the sake of our own souls.  Resentment only binds up our own freedom.  As one of your servants, Lewis Smedes, said, when we forgive we set a prisoner free – and then we realize that we were the prisoner.

Your Son has already made forgiveness possible.  He has opened the door that imprisons us to hurt.  So give me the courage to walk through the open door.  Amen.