A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

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A Compe l l i ng Tes t imony

d. God takes no pleasure in punishment, Joel 2.13 – and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

5. Walking by faith and not by sight: affirming forgiveness

a. God has forgiven me, Mic. 7.18-19 – Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over trans gression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. [19] He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

b. I can therefore forgive myself, Rom. 8.1 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

c. I can forgive others, Eph. 4.31-32 – Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. [32] Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. d. I can ask others to forgive me, Col. 3.12-13 – Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, [13] bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.