The speaker at our church this morning was talking on Psalm 133 which starts off with “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity”. Then he went on to point out how important it is to learn to forgive each other, because as the Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, and if we refuse to forgive others God cannot forgive us of these hard thoughts.

It reminded me of Job in the Old Testament part of the Bible. This man lost all he had within a week…his fortune, his family and his health. His three friends came to see him and to commiserate with him over his misfortune. But without exception, all they could say was that he must have sinned in some way and that all this was God’s punishment on him. It stood to reason, they said, that this must be so!

Job lost patience with them in the end and said, “You are a miserable lot of comforters!”

God’s time for healing finally came, but before Job’s fortunes could turn, God told him he had to pray for his three friends who had said such hard things about him. Can you imagine how difficult  this must have been for him?

But he put his pride in his pocket and did as God asked him to. Once he did this, his three friends were forgiven for their hard words, and Job was blessed with twice as much as he had lost. Truly a classic example of forgiving, before God could bless!

So it truly is a great congregation that can all get on together in total unity without any wrangling over minor things. What do these things really matter in the long run? One disgruntled unforgiving person can hinder God’s work in a way we cannot imagine….let’s make sure that we are not that person. Forgive others so God can forgive you!