The Law of Reciprocity
Daily thundering through our lives is the bane of modern mans' existence - traffic!
Traffic can variously be described as mayhem, menace or even malevolence.
Why is it always my lane that slows, my turn to miss the lights (again!) or my exasperation in merging lanes?
In conducting vital teaching on forgiveness, Jesus explains ‘The Law of Reciprocity'. If I too wish to be forgiven, first I must be a forgiver. It is most simple. How I treat others is how they will treat me.
I can actually learn much about myself from reading how others consistently treat me.
Yet, this law reaches much higher for it is written in heaven. It is God Himself who witnesses all our behavior. Our conduct precedes us to heaven. Heaven will always honour our conduct on earth. My earthly conduct becomes the banking of spiritual deposits in heaven. The heavenly banker will always honor these deposits. In fact such deposits can either open the gates to heaven or close them to me (forgiveness). God has revealed this so that we may be understanding in our life before Him.
“I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:18)
So briefly returning to the problem of traffic. Just maybe my lane merging continues to exasperate, because I too don't allow others to merge in front of me?
Heaven honors my decisions upon earth, for I still reap what I sow