Freely

"Just share what I give you"...

That's the word to my heart this morning.

I find the echo of this in the verse below:

Matthew 10:8 "Freely you have received, freely give"

Yesterday, whilst working at a client's office, out of the blue, I was given quite a large bar of milk chocolate by a lovely lady I had been working with for years. There was no merit or earning of it. It was just given out of a generous heart.

In turn, I hope I'm generous enough to share some of it today at home at coffee break!

Let's be honest here, when we receive a box of chocolates as a gift, the temptation is to keep it for ourselves!🤣🤣🤣

What about the good news of Jesus? Am I keeping it for myself?

What Jesus gives us we are meant to share FREELY!

Have we freely received His forgiveness of our sins and mistakes? Give it out, pass it on, treat others in the same way.

Jesus told a brilliant story to illustrate this principle:

Matthew 18:23

“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

The man in the story was happy to receive, but not to give!

It's a stern warning to me when "nursing" a grudge refusing to pass on the free forgiveness that Jesus has given me!

I must keep short accounts in my heart!

Whether it be chocolates, forgiveness or salvation...

Freely we have received, freely give!