Cycles of Grace and Forgiveness

Luke 17:3-4
"Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him."

Reading these verses today made me realize how God is so incredibly in tune with human nature (and by "human nature" I mean the tendency to repeatedly screw up and repent, screw up and repent, screw up and repent, all in the same day). Jesus is telling people here that even in their person-to-person relationships they need to imitate God in how He relates to us in the midst of sin cycles. We are expected to show unending forgiveness to each other. It doesn't matter if it is one offense or thirty-two in one day. We are still to forgive. Now that part isn't the amazing thing to me. I understand that we are to be forgiving with each other. But what I have never seen in this before is that it is really a reflection of God's heart towards us. He is infinitely forgiving and gracious to us even though he knows we may do the same stupid thing to Him countless times in one day. He understands that mankind is messed up and that we often fall into the cycle of sin and repent, sin and repent without trying to. Yet His grace never falters. He faithfully extends his love and forgiveness to us all the way through our ridiculous daily cycles of sin.

How humbling it is to get smacked in the face with the truth some time! I can't count how many times I have had to ask for forgiveness and repent for the same thing multiple times in one day. And there are moments when I think that God actually gets tired of hearing me come back to Him in repentance because I think He is thinking, "This guy doesn't really mean it. He is going to go screw up again in fifteen minutes." God's heart is always that we would return to right relationship with Him. He extends his grace in spite and/or because of our cycles of idiocy. If he expects us to forgive each other like this, then it is all the more true for us and Him. Whether it is once, twice, or three thousand times I never need to fear that his forgiveness won't be there.