For Your Name's Sake

Psalm 79:9  Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake.

Asaph's request shines extra light on the concept of forgiveness.

The verse I have highlighted today has something very important that many of us tend to forget (or may have never even thought about) in regards to forgiveness. It's the reason why God should deliver and forgive. Asaph said it was "for your name's sake." Notice that he didn't say that God should forgive them so that the people would benefit, but rather that God would benefit. The benefit being that God would be known as a delivering, forgiving God.

Too many times we think that we are doing someone else a favor when we forgive them. However, the benefit to them may be minimal in comparison to our own benefit. Think about it, if we hold a grudge against someone, who is really getting hurt? Many times the other person is going along their merry way oblivious to how we feel (which often makes us feel even worse). By forgiving that person, we are in fact releasing ourselves from those negative feelings. So the next time we are tempted to hold a grudge against someone, we should ask God to help us forgive them, for our name's sake.