{"id":258,"date":"2026-08-07T20:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/?p=258"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:01:20","slug":"august-7-2026-820-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/?p=258","title":{"rendered":"August 7, 2026, 8:20 PM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

God<\/em>: Rejecting forgiveness isn\u2019t humility, Joshua. I forgive you<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is rejecting my forgiveness humility? You accept that the punishment isn\u2019t coming; but you reject any good<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgiveness is not merely saying \u201cwhat you deserve, you aren\u2019t getting<\/em>\u201d; but also \u201cthe good that you had, I\u2019m not withholding<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you make a mistake, even when it isn\u2019t sin<\/em>, you withdraw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if other people don\u2019t withdraw, YOU DO<\/em>. True forgiveness doesn\u2019t just say \u201cI\u2019ll withhold punishment\u201d; but \u201cI will not withhold good\u201d. When I commanded forgiving your brother seventy times seven, that wasn\u2019t moving the relationship to that of a stranger<\/em>\u2014the brother was still a brother!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did I do when the prodigal son returned? I accepted him back<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could have simply stated \u201cI forgive you; now go out and live life: you owe me nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I didn\u2019t<\/em>. I did not withhold GOOD<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> I think I\u2019m stuck on times I was told I was forgiven, or even the other side took responsibility, and then kept bringing up the same situation as a sign of my own failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> (shakes head) You don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason you don\u2019t accept forgiveness is simple<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You weren\u2019t accepting forgiveness even before the situation you are recalling<\/em>. That isn\u2019t the reason you struggle with accepting forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me spell this out: you were taught that 1) you should always try to make things right, 2) the wages of sin is death, 3) all sin is equal. And that combined means\u2026 you owe everyone your life when you sin against them<\/em><\/strong>. Ruh-roh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s an awful tonic. Let us be clear that in Leviticus, I did not treat all wrong the same<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law wasn\u2019t all the same to every type of wrong. Breaking the law is breaking the law<\/em><\/strong>. But there were different laws, and different responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou should always try to make things right\u201d\u2026 who defines that? I defined that in laws for the Jews, so that justice would be done AND SO THAT JUSTICE WOULD NOT BE OVER-DONE<\/strong><\/em>. There is such thing as \u201cover-punishment\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wages of sin is<\/em> death, but those are sin\u2019s wages, NOT MINE<\/em><\/strong>. I\u2019M not giving you death, SIN IS!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, even with forgiveness, YOU CARRIED AN IMPOSSIBLE DEBT FOR EVERY WRONG<\/em>. The best you could hope was that the other person would forget about it<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than being concerned about connection<\/em>, and seeking that, you would instead seek to avoid all need for FORGIVENESS<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To avoid all need for forgiveness, is to avoid all relationship<\/strong>. You\u2019re a human being who is healing<\/em> and learning<\/em>. You\u2019ll need forgiveness. Only reason you wouldn\u2019t<\/em>, is if you go dig yourself into a hole<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expect to need forgiveness. I\u2019m not saying to expect to fail; I\u2019m not saying to expect to sin<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But expect to need forgiveness. It doesn\u2019t make you BAD<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> God, I feel like as a dude\u2026 I should just take the fall for everything that goes wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> (shakes head) Who taught you that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> Well, I was always told that I should take responsibility<\/em>\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> (shakes head) Take responsibility for what you\u2019re responsible for. It isn\u2019t good to take responsibility if it\u2019s not what you\u2019re responsible for\u2014that is dishonest<\/em> and even discouraging<\/em>. Do you expect to be a leader without delegating? Delegating<\/em> will include letting other people take responsibility<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone isn\u2019t even being delegated something by you, there\u2019s no way you can claim responsibility<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me be clear: it is one thing to pay the price for another<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you are saying is if someone else breaks a lamp, you take the blame. Mercy and truth will acknowledge that you didn\u2019t<\/em> break the lamp, but you\u2019ll pay for it<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t claim that I did all sin. I cover yours<\/em>. That is a VERY IMPORTANT DISTINCTION. You don\u2019t have to find a way to make it all your fault. You desperately search for ways to say \u201cI did it!\u201d That is an unfortunate survival technique you picked up as a kid. You were told at times that to be \u201cin\u201d, you had to take the blame for how you felt, for what had happened\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can take responsibility for your <\/em>end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But saying \u201cthere\u2019s no way it could\u2019ve been anyone but me\u201d when it wasn\u2019t you isn\u2019t living in the light<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a sneaky way to avoid forgiveness<\/em>. Because if you never acknowledge anything was anyone else\u2019s fault\u2026 you\u2019ll never have to forgive them<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than practicing FORGIVENESS, you practice DENIAL and blame yourself. That isn\u2019t forgiveness. Claiming it was your fault ISN\u2019T FORGIVENESS<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledge your end. Acknowledge their end. Extend forgiveness to you and to them. And when you don\u2019t feel strong enough\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026forgive yourself for that. And know you aren\u2019t required to try making yourself strong enough to forgive. Walk with me. Lean into me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God: Rejecting forgiveness isn\u2019t humility, Joshua. I forgive you. Is rejecting my forgiveness humility? You accept that the punishment isn\u2019t coming; but you reject any good. Forgiveness is not merely saying \u201cwhat you deserve, you aren\u2019t getting\u201d; but also \u201cthe good that you had, I\u2019m not withholding\u201d. When you make a mistake, even when it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}