Forgive us for our sins, because we forgive everyone who has done wrong to us. (Luke 11:4)
When have you struggled to extend forgiveness to someone?
When have you struggled to receive forgiveness from someone?
How completely do you accept God’s forgiveness of you?
Forgiveness is not easy. It’s easier in some circumstances than others, but it’s definitely not a simple process. It’s not the same in every situation. There will be times when someone says “I’m sorry,” and you can easily say, “No problem!” Other times you might hold onto the hurt for years. Someone might not actually say he or she is sorry. You might wait, expecting an apology and expecting to be able to forgive once the apology is given, but if you can’t forgive without the apology, you likely can’t forgive with the apology. Your forgiveness isn’t reliant on someone’s guilt and offering of forgiveness. We want justice and can’t imagine getting it without something tangible. God’s forgiveness doesn’t require justice. If it did, none of us would be forgiven. God’s way of forgiving is undeserved. Even when we know someone doesn’t deserve our forgiveness, we have to extend it when we’re trying to live by God’s will. We forgive because of who God is. Forgiveness doesn’t mean you don’t learn lessons from what has happened in the past. It doesn’t mean you never think about it again. It doesn’t mean whatever is forgiven has no impact on your life. There are still consequences. Forgiveness simply places the situation into God’s hands. It’s the act of saying to God, “I yield this to you and trust you in guiding me how to deal with it. Use it to draw me close to you.” Forgiveness is more about your relationship with God than the worldly justice you crave.
Say “I forgive” to someone today. It can be to someone in your past or present. It can be verbal or written. You might need to say it to God because you no longer have contact with the person or don’t know how to reach them. It might be for something small or something big. It might be for a small piece of a larger issue or the big issue itself. Start somewhere. Start today.
Thank you for this excellent word and reminder. I’ve often heard people say, “I just can’t forgive,” as though it were a feeling, but forgiveness is a choice to obey God, so those feelings might take a while to calm and our minds to forget. But, as you said, “Forgiveness simply places the situation into God’s hands,” and with the power of God to help and heal us and those who wronged us, who knows what the Love of the Almighty Father God can and will do!
Amen!
So much could be healed if we could do this. It’s funny, isn’t it, that it’s often the smaller things we can’t forgive. I suspect that has something to do with our pride. You hit it on the head with our need for justice and fairness. Except we have no concept what those really mean in eternity. The experience I blogged about this week was one of those times God just blew away all those ideas of what fairness means and what power forgiveness has. I can’t imagine living in the prison of unforgiveness anymore.
Sometimes I think we struggle so much with forgiveness because there is such a misunderstanding of what forgiveness truly is. Often we need to back up a step and define true biblical forgiveness before we can ever move forward in helping others find the ability to forgive.
Yes, Bekah. And the only way we can even begin to understand biblical forgiveness is to search God’s Word and become more intimate with who God is, including experiencing how complete his forgiveness is.