Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32 NLT

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.  Matthew 6:14-15 NLT

Forgiveness is a powerful word in the Christian faith. Our Lord, Jesus, chose to die a horrible death on a cross to secure our forgiveness and restore our relationship with our Father God. Paul tells the church at Ephesus, and us, that we are to forgive others just as we have been forgiven. In Matthew, Jesus is a bit more direct. If we forgive others, God will forgive us. If we don’t…

For example, someone in our neighborhood gossiped about me and it wasn’t kind, nor even true. I am angry and upset. I can’t seem to even look at or talk to them. The person who offended me doesn’t ask for my forgiveness. But without choosing to forgive, I tend to  relive the offense over and over. I dwell on their refusal to apologize or ask for my forgiveness. And what I am really doing is allowing them to hold me captive in an angry and hurt place.

Forgiveness doesn’t really come naturally for us humans, it is a choice we decide to make. We don’t wait for them to ask, or to be apologetic, or to be sorry. We don’t wait until we’re not angry. We take the initiative and, with help from our Lord, we forgive. We leave the anger and the hurt with our Lord, He is our burden bearer, and shine His love instead. I know this makes it sound a lot easier than it is.

Because…forgiveness is hard. Sometimes it may take many prayers and time before we feel the peace and release of forgiveness. But our forgiveness is just that, a release from the hurt and anger, a freedom to move on and not let that offense or the offender control us. We move past it. We choose God’s grace and choose to forgive.

I do want to make one comment; sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourselves. We feel we don’t deserve it. We punish ourselves and keep ourselves in that angry, hurt, and shameful place. We have to make the choice to forgive ourselves. Jesus died on the cross so that we can be forgiven. He took our sins on Himself. Confess, repent and feel the release and the peace.

This week, is there an offense or offender in your life that you haven’t been able to forgive. Their trespass seemed too great, too hurtful. Sometimes those closest to us are able to hurt us the worst. Begin to pray about it and see where the Spirit leads. We don’t even have to tell them they are forgiven; we just choose to forgive as God in Christ chose to forgive us.

I thank God for each of you! And I thank you for joining me this week as we choose to forgive the offenses and offenders and accept gratefully the amazing forgiveness of the Lord.

Blessings and prayers for each of you as we all strive together to forgive!