Forgiveness
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you.
(Mat 6:14 ASV)
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.
(Mat 6:15 ASV)
We all have had people do things to hurt us at one time or another and
the tendency is to be angry with them and to harbor un-forgiveness in
our hearts toward them, this is the natural human reaction. However when
we do this in reality we are only hurting ourselves, we often stay awake
at night replaying the incident in our minds, we lose our peace our joy
and our fellowship with the Lord. We see the other person going on as if
nothing had happened, perhaps they didn’t even realize they have hurt us
or worse they don’t care and are sleeping fine. If we would only learn
to forgive and take our hurt to The Lord and allow Him to heal us,
instead we hold un-forgiveness and feel we are somehow punishing the one
who hurt us, in reality we are only punishing ourselves.
We all sin either against others or against the Lord and are in need of
His forgiveness almost daily, if not daily and I don’t know about you
but I don’t want anything to keep me from receiving God forgiveness and
Grace in my life. I know you are thinking easier said than done, and you
are right it is almost always is easier to say then to do because we
have all these feelings of anger, hate and bitterness and they can
make it very difficult to forgive. But I would like to share something
which has helped me; you see forgiveness is a matter of choice and not
feelings. We can choose to forgive those who have hurt us and go to the
Lord with our hurt and He will heal us and restore us.
When you forgive others we are really opening up ourselves up to receive
God’s grace and opening the way for the Lord to move in the other
person’s life to bring them to repentance as well;
If so be that it is righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to
them that afflict you, (2Th 1:6 ASV)
And to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the
Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, (2Th
1:7 ASV)
Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, who
would make a reckoning with his servants.
(Mat 18:23 ASV)
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, that owed him
ten thousand talents.
(Mat 18:24 ASV)
But forasmuch as he had not
wherewith
to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children,
and all that he had, and payment to be made.
(Mat 18:25 ASV)
The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have
patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
(Mat 18:26 ASV)
And the lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him,
and forgave him the debt.
(Mat 18:27 ASV)
But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who
owed him a hundred shillings: and he laid hold on him, and took
him
by the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest.
(Mat 18:28 ASV)
And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay
that which was due.
(Mat 18:30 ASV)
So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were exceeding
sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
(Mat 18:31 ASV)
Then his lord called him unto him, and saith to him, Thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou besoughtest me:
(Mat 18:32 ASV)
shouldest not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow-servant, even as I
had mercy on thee?
(Mat 18:33 ASV)
And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he
should pay all that was due.
(Mat 18:34 ASV)
So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every
one his brother from your hearts.
(Mat 18:35 ASV)
We may have to keep on reminding ourselves that we
made a choice to forgive over and over until our feelings line up
because it is not always easy to let go, but clearly the blessings we receive far
outweigh the difficulties, so walk in forgiveness and walk in the grace
of The Lord.
God Bless!