Forgiveness, Even If, Even If...

(Warning: I got a little long winded with this post!)

We talked about forgiveness this past week in Sunday school. Our teacher began by telling us that a few years ago he had struggled with questions about his forgiveness in salvation. He shared with us that the Lord had revealed to him in a dream that his entire life, all that he had done, had been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ and that he was forgiven. It was a life changing moment for him and as a result he keeps a list of scriptures in his bible to remind him of that forgiveness.

He then had the class recite the Lord’s Prayer together. When we were finished, he brought attention to the last two verses in that passage.

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14-15

That’s a pretty heavy passage that begins to put things in perspective. Our teacher shared with us that he wasn’t sure that he read it right so he went looking for other passages in the Bible to back it up. These are the passages that he gave us:

Matthew 18:21-35
Matthew 5:23-24
Mark 11:25-26
Luke 23:33-34
Romans 12:17-18
Ephesians 4:32

We worked through each of these that morning. Forgiveness is not an easy thing to do for humans; in fact I don’t think it is something that we can do on our own. It is something that we have to do with the power of Christ living in us.

Think about it though – we are wretched human beings – we were dead in our transgressions before Christ came to save us. Yet, He came to save us. God sent His Son to die for me, for you, for us all. It is my sin, my petty little sins that I am too lazy to overcome that nailed Jesus to that cross. It is my sin that took His life, God’s ONLY Son, yet GOD STILL LOVES ME AND FORGIVES ME. How much more then should I turn around and forgive those that hurt me.

I’ll be the first to admit to you that I can have a quick temper and I can get pretty angry at people when they hurt me. When I was younger, that anger used to turn into a need for revenge. There is one particularly painful instance I remember from college. I vowed to get revenge on someone that hurt me, and wanted it so bad that I even brought someone else into it. I got my revenge, but it didn’t turn out like I thought it would and I certainly did not feel good after it was done – I felt pretty stupid actually. I realized when it was over, and really even in the midst of the situation that revenge would never be the way I dealt with something again.

There was another instance in my life where someone close to me hurt me, to the point of devastation. But with the power of Christ and only the power of Christ, I was able to forgive that person and move forward. This was definitely the better choice. Because I chose to forgive, I did not carry that around with me. It was not a weight that was attached to me that got heavier the longer I carried it. It was not a lens that negatively tinted everything else that person did to me. I chose to love that person with the love of Christ and move on. Now did I forget what that person did – no, and I don’t think I ever will. They shared in Sunday school this morning that we don’t often forgive and forget, we forgive and forsake. We forsake because it is no longer with us on a daily basis weighing us down, it just becomes something that happened to us in the past. That is what I have done.

I encourage you to look at your life, really look at it. Is there someone that you have not forgiven? I pray if there is that the Lord will begin to work in your heart and He will begin to break down the walls of bitterness and anger and that He will restore that relationship or at least begin to mend it. It is too heavy of a burden to carry yourself. Believe me, I know it will be painful to give that up and it will even cost you your pride in some instances, but it is worth it for the freedom that comes along with giving that burden to the Lord and moving forward.

May God bless you in your journey to freedom.