Scales, Blindfolds, and Unforgiveness (Lent 3, 2024)

A covering over our eyes is like a blindfold or scales that prevent our seeing. On the other hand, covering our hearts opens our eyes. Let me explain:

Sin distorts everything.
It puts blindfolds upon our eyes and plants unforgiveness in our hearts.
Unforgiveness toward others. Unforgiveness towards ourselves.

If you search online for “how to forgive” one of the first prompts is “yourself.”

I’m obviously not the only one who struggles more with forgiving myself than forgiving others. That’s because of guilt. I know what I’ve done even if what I’ve done isn’t even sin but simple failure that I find embarrassing or regrettable.

Other people disappoint me all the time and it doesn’t faze me at all. Disappointing myself is another issue. Why? Because I had control and decision-making. Sometimes I knew better. Sometimes I just chose poorly.

The good news is that “Love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)

Love does not cover our eyes. It covers our hearts. Do you know God’s love as a cover for your heart? Have you asked Jesus for His covering you with forgiveness?

Exercise your faith:
Imagine yourself as a marshmallow or strawberry plunged into a chocolate fountain. Now think of the chocolate as God’s love pouring inexhaustibly from heaven, covering you, flowing, flowing, flowing, never ending. There’s always more love than is needed to cover us. God’s abundant love covers our sin. With sin’s scales and blindfolds covered with love, we can learn to see ourselves forgiven as God’s Image-bearers, and we can forgive our enemies because they’re made in the Image of God, too. “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Colossians 3:13-14)

Join me tomorrow for how to see what you know.

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2024 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Revelation in 40 devotionals for 2022 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.
Last year’s devotionals “Created to Display His Image” explored what it truly means to be made in God’s Image and the profound significance of that fact. They are archived beginning February 22, 2023.