Forgiveness

 

 

Top four reasons to forgive (Bible) survey says....

1. “Be merciful even as your Father which is in heaven is merciful- forgiving(Lk.6:36). (Mt.18:35) God forgives, therefore we are to forgive.

2. God has forgiven us of a huge debt more than our brother ever owed to us. The offence my brother made against me, does that compare to my insults against God??? (Read Mt.18:20-34)

3. Jesus did! Jesus forgave those that crucified Him, as He said:
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” We may have had our ego’s crucified but not our body lately.

4. We are wrapped in a prison by our unforgiving spirit. We are tormented by it. Indeed part of hell for people is the suffering that comes from not forgiving. Why add injury to the insult.

Objections to forgiving....yes they exist.

Is forgiveness forgetting?
Yes...and no.
The word for forgive is afhimi . I leave something. When we forgive we leave it alone. It is behind us. In English we talk of remission of sins. This is accurate- just like a bill you are remitted of a debt so when we forgive we have remitted- cleared the balance someone owes us of love and respect.

God said concerning our sins,” I will forgive their iniquity and their sins will I REMEMBER no more.”

This does not mean we have to put confidence or trust in them again, we just can’t hold the sin against them- that is the sin of grudging.

"Why should I forgive him? (notice him...) He did this twice yesterday. He will never change."

How often should we forgive then ? Wellll,.... How often do we sin??? Every day. Not just 70 times but 70 times 70 we need forgiveness.

"I just can't forgive him, it hurts too much..."
How do we deal with the bitterness from the injury some one did to me?

All we can say is Christ is the Physician of our souls who can take the bitterness of life and turn it into blessedness if we allow Him.
The bitter cup of cursing in life is turned to a cup of blessing by His cross.