Daily Devotional
Do You Apologize or Seek Forgiveness?

September 11, 2023

Ponder This

Make sure you forgive. I had somebody come to me yesterday and say, “I want you to forgive me.” My first inclination was to say, “Don’t worry about it. That’s okay.” But I realized that would have been wrong of me because that was not forgiveness. What that individual needed and deserved was forgiveness. So, I didn’t just say, “Don’t worry about it. Forget it.” I said, “I forgive you.” That’s very important. You see, sometimes when we do wrong, we don’t go to another individual and say, “Forgive me.” We say, “If I have hurt your feelings, I’m sorry. I want to apologize.” Essentially what we are saying with that is, “I want to apologize and explain to you why I did what I did.”

The word apologize comes from the Greek word, apologia, which means to make a defense. In apologetics, we’re defending the faith. So many of us want to apologize and what we’re doing is defending ourselves. If you’ve wronged somebody, don’t apologize, instead say, “Would you forgive me? I was wrong.” And if somebody’s wronged you, don’t just say, “Oh, forget it. Never mind.” Say, “I forgive you.” Do it fully. Then it’s buried in the grave of God’s forgetfulness. Forgive fully.

• What is the difference between an apology and asking for forgiveness?
• When have you felt tempted to defend your actions in an apology?

Practice This

Take a moment and consider who you have offended or hurt and ask that person to forgive you.