In Today in the Word the story is told about a woman who once came to Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia, requesting that the man who killed her husband be put to death. The man had fallen from the top of a palm tree when he had been gathering dates and landed on this lady’s husband and killed him.

The king said, “It is your right to exact compensation, and it is also your right to ask for this man’s life. But it is my right to decree how he shall die. You shall take this man with you and he shall be tied to the foot of a palm tree and then you shall climb to the top of the tree and cast yourself down upon him from that height. In that way you will take his life as he took your husband’s. Or perhaps,” Ibn Saud added, “you would prefer after all to take the blood money?”

The widow took the money.vTo fail to forgive keeps us bound to the past. It is a killer—not of the one who caused the resentment, but the one who carries the resentment. As another has put it, “Failing to forgive is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

Also, as Jesus said, “He who has been forgiven little loves little.” One way to love much, therefore, is to confess all our wrongs and sins, not only to God, but to the one/s we have hurt and do all we can to make restitution and be forgiven ourselves. For he who has been forgiven much loves much!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to confess all my sins and ways I have hurt others (name them), and find forgiveness from You and them so I will love much and freely forgive all who have hurt me—as You have freely forgiven me. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Jesus in Luke 7:47 (NIV).