Forgiveness

Why is one word so powerful and hard at the same time?  Why is it easy to speak of forgiveness but it is hard to truly forgive.  You see it so often in the Christian life.  That's the only place I'm going to talk about.  To the unsaved, they have nothing to measure forgiveness by.


But as Christians, we have been forgiven much and we continue to be forgiven much.  Yet we hang on to the bitterness, the anger.  We use a lot of things to camouflage it.  We call it loyalty to the person something was said about.  We call it pride in heritage when something is said, about where we are from or our family.  We call it caution to keep us from being hurt again.


Yet in truth the only true reason for unforgiveness is  disobedience.  The Bible says we are to forgive.  It says we are to forgive 70 x 7.  It says we are to forgive even if they don't ask for forgiveness.  When we fail to do so, we hinder our own lives and what we can accomplish for God.


I know Christians, folks that I love that harbor anger or bitterness toward others and yes I have been there myself.  I was self-righteous in my anger.  "They should have been better, they should not have done or said this or that."  "They hurt me, they hurt people I cared about".


Let's step back for a moment and look at this from God's perspective and see where those 'reasons' stack up if we look from there.


1) They should not have done or said 'whatever' - so if we are going there, have we ever said or done something we shouldn't?  Have we ever in jest or maybe even in spite said hurtful things?  Did God forgive you?  Yes, He did and if the Holy God can forgive you, who are you to hold that grudge?


2) They hurt me  or they hurt someone I love- seriously?  Think about it, man - that is you and me- crucified Jesus, they spat on Him, they gave Him vinegar to drink, they stripped Him, they cursed Him.  But does God forgive?  Thank you Lord, He does!  He has every reason not to.  He has every reason to say 'NO! You can't be forgiven'.  Yet He not only forgives, He heals, He restores and He loves.


And the really sad thing about unforgiveness -it hurts you!  It is sin and we cannot truly serve God to the best of our abilities with unforgiven sin in our life.  When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, 'forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors' is pretty clear.  I don't think it was just a suggestion. 


How can you ask God to forgive you, if you are unwilling to forgive someone who has wronged you?  You may say it isn't a big deal, it's just a little thing.  So, does that mean that you are willing to allow a little thing, something that isn't a big deal to have a negative impact on your spiritual life?  I mean, think about it.  If it is big enough that you have to hold on to it, it must be pretty important, right?


Trust me when I tell you, that when that truth becomes a reality and you realize how you are hurting yourself with your actions and attitude, it will put that act, whatever it may be into perspective.


You know the saddest thing about unforgiveness?  Sometimes the action we find so 'hard to forgive' had to happen to move you or someone else where they need to be.  It could be something that sparked a ministry or caused someone to understand the need to help in an area.  It could be what pushed someone to show what they can do.  God has used this thing that you will not forgive to grow and mature others, yet you let it hold you back. 


Today, let's all search our hearts and ask God to show us if there is anything we need to forgive, anyone we need to forgive.  And if there is, ask God to help you forgive! 


Let's also ask if there are things we need to ask forgiveness for.  Where have we failed?  Who have we hurt?  At times the hurt is not our intention, yet it still hurts.  We can't excuse because the hurt wasn't intentional, we can't try to explain it away.  We must own it, be sorry for it and do our best to make amends.