Monday 14^th July, 2025

Bible Reading: Matthew 18: 23-35

Memory Verse:  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13 (NIV)

1. A one-time assassin said as a sniper, he killed three full grown adult children of a particular woman – two of them in their late twenties, and the third child in his early thirties. The woman pursued the case in the court of law and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. After 15 years, God encountered the bereaved woman with a message of forgiveness such as this, and she decided to withdraw the case from the court of law and reduce his sentence. She told the man as he embraced him, “Though I do not have any child to bury me when I die, but I forgive you.” Today, that former assassin is now a preacher of the Word of God.

2. A woman in a very good old age was once asked the reason for her vitality. She was very strong and never used a walking stick. She said, “An open heart and an open hand”. By open heart, she meant she doesn’t hold grudges against anyone, and by open hands she meant she was a giver.

3. Nelson Mandela, after spending 27 years in jail at the Robin Island in his struggle against Apartheid said, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” You could be free but bound! What is the state of your heart towards your offenders?

4. There are many choristers wearing the same choir uniform, but not in speaking terms with one another. Uniformity is not the same as unity. Same for others in different Church departments and house fellowship units, and even amongst pulpit ministers! There are many husbands and wives who sit together, probably wearing the same clothes, even in the house of God, but have deep seated animosity against each other.

Quote: The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Prophetic Decree:  Let the yoke of unforgiveness in your heart, be broken now, in Jesus name. 

Prayer Focus

1. Thank you Father for modelling forgiveness for me.

2. I receive your forgiveness even as I forgive my trespassers, in Jesus name. 

3. Lord, you know the reins of my heart, please enter and search your light therein, in Jesus name.

4. Blood of Jesus, purge me from deep seated animosity towards (name the person), in Jesus name. 

5. Balm of Gilead, heal my broken spirit borne out of offences, in Jesus name. 

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Micah 1-7