1 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

God created our body, Jesus paid for it, and the Holy Spirit lives inside it. Our body is a temple and not just a house so we must be careful how we treat it and use it.

Isaiah‬ ‭58‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭MSG‬‬

““If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage, If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God’s holy day as a celebration, If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’ making money, running here and there— Then you’ll be free to enjoy God! Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.” Yes! God says so!”

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Are we honouring God with our finances and the material things that He’s blessed us with? We saw during last week’s devotional that Cain offered a sacrifice that was rejected by God which means that God doesn’t accept everything that we give to Him.

So how can we ensure that what we give is honourable to God?

Isaiah‬ ‭29‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”

No matter how much we sing, pray, serve and say we that we honour God, if it doesn’t come genuinely from our hearts, it’s not honour.

In 1 Samuel 2 Vs 30, God established a law regarding honour. He said ….

‭‭I will honor those who honor me, and I will despise those who think lightly of me.”

Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”

Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭37‬ ‭NLT‬‬

““Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.”

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God has given us His law about forgiveness and He has commanded us to forgive others the same way we have been forgiven. But how do you actually perceive forgiveness? Do you think you’re doing people a favour by forgiving them?

When someone offends us, should we just swallow it and act like we’re not hurt and everything is okay because God has commanded us to forgive?

Luke‬ ‭17‬:‭3‬ ‭EASY‬‬ says

“Be careful how you live. If your Christian brother does something wrong, speak to him. Tell him that he has done a bad thing. He may say, “I am sorry for what I did. I will not do it again.” If he says that, you must forgive him.”

How many times should we forgive people particularly when they keep committing the same offence against us?

The Bible teaches us that forgiveness brings healing and restoration. Even Psychologists and medical researchers have proven that unforgiveness and bitterness can cause stress in our bodies that can lead to very severe diseases like high blood pressure, migraines, ulcers, cancers, depression and so on.

So the big question is ‘is unforgiveness really worth all the trouble?’.