God's Reconciliation



For the season of Lent I'll be sharing devotions from Grace Lutheran's devotional book: "Forgiven." 

While these devotions are not my words and may not represent my own faith or theological understanding, they are valuable personal faith perspectives of 40 of Grace's members and I am so grateful for their generosity in sharing them.

Part One: Forgiveness & Wholeness

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (God’s reconciliation and forgiveness)

 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

 It was through Christ’s death and resurrection that God accomplished the reconciliation of the world to himself. Reconciliation is the restoration of a relationship of peace. If we are reconciled with God, we view everything from the perspective of God. We no longer look at people as we did before, we don’t judge or condemn.

 If we follow Christ, we are expected to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation. Our actions should be seen as sharing the love and forgiveness that reflect what we have received from God.
Sin breaks our relationship with God. It destroys family members, separates friends, divides churches and nations As ambassadors of Christ, we need to relate the message of reconciliation to each other and the world. We need to forgive and restore peace.

 Prayer:
God of peace, help me to view others through your lens,
to create peace, and to forgive those whom I have offended. In Christ’s name we pray,
Amen.

~ Judy

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