How To Say I'm Sorry

Then you shall say,

“These belong to your servant Jacob;

it is a present sent to my lord Esau.

And behold, he also is behind us.”

Genesis 32:18

How do we face someone we have wronged or angered?

We must face them in humility.

And according to Genesis 32:5, bringing along a gift appears to help.

Jacob is in the process of learning that if we are to be in a right relationship with God, we must also be in a right relationship with our fellow man. In Luke 2:52 we read that Jesus increased in favor with God and with man.

Christ came to be our Savior and to be our standard.

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36–40). God simply will not allow us to go on unreconciled. God came in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ so that we could be reconciled to the fellowship that we lost with Him in the garden. He died for us and gave us the gift of the shed blood of His only begotten Son.

Christ went to the cross when it was not even He who had done the wrong. We wronged Him, yet He made the initiative to reconcile. “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10).

We are to forgive just as God forgave us and continues to forgive us. In Matthew 5:9 Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

Are you a peacemaker or a pot-stirrer?

 If Christ were to come to you today would He find you involved in strife, jealousy, gossip, disturbances (2 Corinthians 12:20), or would He find you being made complete, comforted, like-minded, living in peace (2 Corinthians 13:11)?

Are you quick to forgive?

Are you quick to seek forgiveness?

Oh, precious one, let us not give in to the schemes of Satan by holding on to unforgiveness or withholding forgiveness. Let us remember the example set for us by Jacob. Let us even more remember the example set for us by Jesus Christ, our Peacemaker.

Oh Father,

Open my eyes to anyone whom I have wronged that I might make it right. Oh Father, may Your Holy Spirit within me convict my heart when I have need to initiate a reconciliation. Help me to not hang on to unforgiveness. Help me, Father, to see to it that no one comes short of Your grace and that no bitter root springs up, causing trouble in the work of Your kingdom (Hebrews 12:15). And when I feel I have been wronged and someone comes to me to be reconciled, help me to always be ready to forgive. May I have already forgiven before the reconciliation attempt has even been made.

My Jesus, it is in Your name that I pray,

Amen.

Never let it be too late to apologize...