Learning to Forgive

"For if ye forgive men their trepasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trepasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)

Learning to forgive people that have hurt and wounded us is a very hard thing to do. How can we possibly forgive someone that purposefully inflicted pain on us? Most of us can forgive someone if they step on our foot on accident, jump in front of us on the freeway, even if someone speaks rude to us we can learn to forgive the simple follies that occur frequently in our society. We might be angered by others but we do forgive them. What about the drunk driver that crashes into your loved one's car and kills the one you love the most? or The man that abused your innocence when you were a child, the teacher that purposefully tried to scar you by calling you dumb or stupid, the parent that left you at a young age, the woman that seduced your man and he left you for her. Do these people deserve forgiveness? Their actions are wicked, wrong and hurtful but they are very people that we must learn to forgive. When we don't forgive we allow bitterness to take root in our heart. Everytime we see the individual that hurt us we become enraged and emotionally distraught. Just to hear their name can turn our mood. The bitterness that we carry is a slow poison that destroys our soul. We inflict and hurt those we love most because we have allowed the bitterness to affect our heart. In nature the most dangerous animal is the wounded animal for they might not naturally be dangerous but because of their wound and pain they inflict pain on those that try to help them. Forgiving is a painful process when the bitterness has joined itself with our heart but the bitterness can only be purged through forgiving. Jesus was spat on, He was beaten and flogged, His body was torn, He was betrayed, He was wounded, He was bruised, He was lied on, He was rejected, He was left alone, He was pierced in his side, He was hung on a cross and crucified, He was mocked. Jesus suffered and died because of our sins. He died for you and me not because we deserved life but because while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Hewas taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:2-12

God has forgiven our sins and has forgotten our trangressions. Forgiving is a form of love that many of us don't appreciate. Will we forgive so that God can mend our wounds or will we continue to scrap off our scabs? God has paid the price for our healing. It is a healing that goes beyond just when we are sick it encompasses our mental and emotional health as well. We must forgive so that God can cleanse our hearts from the poison and we can live not die. Remember forgiving is a process and God desires to free us from our pains but we have allow God to work on us. When God forgives us He does not hold past sins over our head we have a clean slate. We don't do that when we forgive it is not in our nature to do that. So we must lean on God's unconditional love to forgive not our fickle conditional love for true liberation is in His love. We can't love if we don't forgive. Let us move forward and not dwell in our past. In this day let us walk in God's love and forgive our debtors. God bless you.