Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! – Matthew 18:21-22 (NLT)
There is nothing more difficult than dealing with someone who has treated you wrongly. Perhaps someone laughed at what you said, or what you wore to school. Maybe someone didn’t do what you wanted them to do. The normal thing to do in situations like this is to get back at them. You might want to teach them a lesson or treat them like they treated you.
However, today’s Bible verse challenges us to do something different. It challenges us to not only forgive someone, but to keep forgiving them. That means they might keep doing the same thing to you and you are to keep forgiving them. Forgiving someone like that might seem impossible to do. That’s why Jesus gave us what we needed to love and forgive others.
The Bible talks about how God’s love has been placed in our hearts by the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5). So when Jesus tells us in this verse that we are to forgive and keep forgiving, it’s not something that is impossible for us to do. We can do this because He gave us the love we need to do it. We just have to choose to let that love flow out of us.