Make things right
It seems that making things right with others can seem like an overwhelming task. For some it may be easy, I think that is very few. For some, they may not even know how to begin. But for others, they are just too afraid to face it head on and do it. The question is why do we need to make things right anyway. Well, no one is being forced. Whether you are a Christian or not if you want to live a happy, healthy successful life it definitely makes a difference. And as a Christian, it is a must if we want to have things right with God.
Make things clear
Before I get too far into this I want to make things clear. Part of what I will be talking about here is reconciling with those we have done wrong to, as it says in Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; (this is usually because we have done them wrong) Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
We may also reconcile with someone who has done us wrong by letting them know we have forgiven them. But this is really where I want to make things clear. There are times that we cannot reconcile with someone. We always need to forgive in our hearts with the help of God but that does not mean that we need to go and reconcile directly with the person. This is mostly referring to those that have abused us in some way. We always need to forgive but that does not mean associate.
Anger
Just before Jesus talked about being reconciled He was talking about anger. A lot of times someone does something we do not like we can tend to start saying things that are not so nice. We start making belittling remarks whether it is directly to them or about them. Which really reveals a pride issue within us. And when pride gets in the way it often leads to anger.
This reminds me of the story about Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible. The story is found in Daniel 3. He built an image of gold to represent himself and then he wanted everyone to bow down to it. There were three Hebrews that refused. Nebuchadnezzar said he would give them a second chance and they said even if he did they would not bow. Wow! Then his anger was kindled. He made the fiery furnace 7 times hotter. When we want to be right and hold onto our pride it turns to anger when things don’t go how we want.
Building walls
Are you a builder? You may say no but if you do you are thinking of the wrong builder. Do you build emotional walls? The sad thing is that if we build walls it leads to murder. You may be saying, “I have never killed anyone.” Well, maybe you have.
When someone does something to us we don’t like if we allow those things to eat away at us we start to build a wall of “protection”, at least so we think. But what it does is leads to hate and in God’s eyes hate is the same as murder. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” 1 John 3:15. Jesus also stated that we are to love our enemies (See Matthew 5:43-44). If we are to love everyone, even our enemies, we should not be building a wall.
We cannot accomplish this on our own because our human nature always wants to take over when we are offended but God will help us if we let Him. Making sure that we are not doing anything that can cause others to build walls against us is another thing we need to do. We need to reconcile with them when we do them wrong.
Reconciliation
When we are in close connection with God reconciliation is usually prompted by God. Now whether we listen to the promptings is another story. He sometimes shows us but we shove the conviction away. We need to be open to His leading.
What I encourage is self-examination. Every night before going to bed just lift up a prayer to God about your day and ask Him to show you any area of your life that needs reconciliation and He will show you. Ask for forgiveness right then and make plans to reconcile with the person as soon as possible.
Cry out to God
There are times that reconciliation can be very difficult to do. We need to cry out to God for the help and grace to do it. It makes me think of Jacob in the Bible when God had directed him to go back to his homeland. He was going to be going back to where his brother was and the last time he had seen him his brother wanted to kill him. Jacob had done his brother a grave wrong. You can read the story about his return to Canaan in Genesis starting in chapter 32. He cried out to God and God answered his prayers.
Just like in the case of Jacob reconciliation may take giving a gift. Or maybe we do owe something to them as restitution. God will direct us to what we need to do. We need to do what it takes for the individual to really know that we are truly sorry because actions speak louder than words.
Pride
In order for us to be reconciled to someone, we need to humble ourselves. A lot of times pride gets in the way of us doing what we really need to do. We need to be willing to serve. That is where Jacob was. He was willing to be as a servant to his brother. He referred to himself as servant and Esau, his brother as master. We can only do this with the love of God flowing in our hearts. That is why our connection with Christ is so important.
Repentance
We cannot reconcile with anyone without repentance. And the only way we can have true repentance is to come to the place David did in Psalms 51:4, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”
We need to realize that the greatest offense that we do is to God. When we do wrong to others we are wronging God because they are His and He loves them. We, as parents, understand this concept. If someone does something to us we deal with it but when someone does something to one of our children, wow! We are not happy. When we wrong others we are wronging Christ so we need to start by repentance with God and then He will help us go to the ones that we have offended and bring reconciliation.
Christ initiated reconciliation
It makes me think of us and our connection with Christ. We have offended Him with our sins and He initiated reconciliation. Jesus is the Greatest Reconciler. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” 2 Corinthians 5:19.
Jesus humbled Himself
Here He was the King of the universe yet He humbled Himself and came down to this dark world as a Babe. When I think of His life here on earth and the humility that He showed throughout His ministry and His death for us, it is amazing. These are things we need to contemplate. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” Philippians 2:5-8. We need to be like Christ.
He tore down walls
Jesus could demand our acceptance of Him but He is a God of love. True love does not force. But He does wait and look for opportunities to bring things into our lives to get our attention. He wants us to see our need for Him and when we do we come willingly and allow Him to work. Thus He tares down the wall between Himself and us.
He made restitution
He made the most amazing restitution. Christ made the ultimate restitution. And if we accept it we have eternal life through Him. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” 1 Peter 1:18-19.
He anguished
This reconciliation did not come easy. There was anguish involved. Christ had anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane. “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood” Luke 22:44. I have never anguished over reconciliation like that. We tend to just let things go and try to forget about it. But God wants us to be reconciled with Him and others and sometimes it takes real anguish to get to the place to do what God has asked us to do. But the greatest thing is that He understands and is there to help us and He will go through it with us.
He showed unconditional love and complete forgiveness.
I am so grateful for His unconditional love and the forgiveness that He has shown me. He has given us the greatest gift and that gift is the Holy Spirit. He will help and guide us. If we do not resist His leading we will have greater happiness.
Grateful
I am so grateful for what Christ has done for me. I want to show the same unconditional love that Christ has for me to others. This is a quote I like written by Thomas A Kempis, “How rarely we weigh our neighbor in the same balance in which we weigh ourselves!” We need to focus on examining ourselves instead of examining others and comparing ourselves with others. Let’s compare ourselves only to Christ and allow Him to change us into His likeness.
Dear Father,
Thank You for loving us so much to send Your Son so that we can be reconciled to You. Keep us and guide us as we examine ourselves so that we can be fully reconciled to those around us.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Give all to Him today allowing Him to reconcile you to Himself. And make things right with those around you.
Love you all.
Do you have a story about how God worked in your life and helped you in reconciling with someone? I would love to hear your story.