The Truth About Forgiveness
It’s easy to talk about forgiveness, until something crushes your life and you actually have to forgive! We live in a world where many things from childhood up—can leave us hurt and offended.
What is an offense? An offense is something done to us that left us hurt or harmed. If left unchecked, offense that builds up can paralyze our ability to love, live well, and be loved by others.
Here are some reasons we may struggle to forgive:
We have a wrong idea about forgiveness. Forgiveness is not minimizing the offense or forgetting that something bad happened. It’s also not reconciliation. Some relationships can be forgiven but not reconciled.
We don’t think it’s fair. The Gospel of Matthew 18: 21-35 explains the depth of forgiveness when Jesus says we should forgive 70 times 7. In a day, that’s once every three minutes!
We don’t think we can do it. It’s true that some offenses are so deep and painful we feel as though we can never let it go, much less forgive! Only God within us can truly forgive. Our natural ability will never lead us to complete forgiveness, but choices can lead our feelings. Choices lead—feelings follow.
We can walk out true forgiveness by following Jesus’s prescription to “Pray for those who have hurt us,” and “Bless those who have offended us.” (Matthew 5 43-33)
Harboring unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. It does much greater harm to us than the person we refuse to forgive.
Gutsy Challenge: Is there someone or something you’ve refused to forgive? You can tell because the thought or mention of them still causes a reaction. Today is the day to let go of the prison bars and break free.
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