13 February 2013

Forgiveness

I sit here wondering what to write. What words will flow from me today I do not know. Only one word keeps coming back to me. I know He is telling me to write this and I am wrestling with it. I do not know why I need to write about it but He is telling me I need to. I pray that who reads this will be blessed and may it touch your heart in some way.


 In the Bible Study that I am doing each morning a certain word has been appearing.  Authority. At first, I thought nothing of it. Yes, Jesus had authority on this earth when He walked the grounds. He has authority in heaven as well. I get it. Then I saw that it keeps appearing in my reading. I realized that God was trying to show me something. What? I do not know. I began to ask myself, “What authority do I have?” I do not believe it is the authority I have in my home, but the authority of forgiveness.

Forgiveness?

Who do I need to forgive? I try to reflect on my last few days and try to think of who has caused me infliction. I recall no one. Yes, I have had some moments with my hubby and children but I know it was not all them. I am confused.

“Lord, what are you trying to show me?”

After my reading today I had an “aha moment.”

I may not have had someone cause me sadness because they hurt me but I do have the authority to forgive others when I am hurt by someone. Jesus has given us authority to forgive others who have caused us hurt. Until we forgive others, we cannot be forgiven by Him.

“But if you do not forgive others theirs sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:15

If we do not forgive, the pain and hurt will turn into bitterness. Bitterness can begin to eat us up from the inside out. We become angry.  We take that anger out on our loved ones or anyone that is in our path. Our anger may be taken out on those who have not even caused us pain. The only way we can let go of that bitterness, anger, and hurt is by forgiving. Yes, forgiveness.

Forgiveness is such a powerful thing. Forgiveness can set us free. Forgiveness can break the chains that are weighing us down. Sometimes we may feel that a person does not deserve our forgiveness because of the horrible things they have done to us. This is true. It can be so hard to forgive those who have caused us great pain, but that is when we draw close to Him. We ask Him to help us. Help us break the chains of anger, bitterness, and to take the pain away. We have to ask wholeheartedly and in His name.

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” John 16:24

We need to ask. We need to ask from our hearts and truly mean what we are asking. We cannot ask for help and expect Him to fix our pain if we are not asking wholeheartedly.

We need to tell the person who has hurt us that we forgive them. A person may not even know they have hurt us but we need to tell them and we need to let them know that we forgive them. We need to give the gift of forgiveness.

Maybe you are the one who has hurt someone. Maybe you have caused pain to another person. You need to go to that person and ask for their forgiveness. Humility. Oh how hard this can be for myself and for others. How hard it can be to go to the person we have hurt and ask for their forgiveness. How hard it is to admit we are wrong. Oh the feelings that brings to us, but we need to think of the feelings it can bring to the one we have wronged.

 Who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to ask forgiveness from?

Break those chains that are weighing you down.




a-wise-woman-builds-her-home

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for listening and posting this. I needed the reminder that not forgiving is only hurting myself, and the reminder to ask God for help with that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I had a difficulty forgiving, I thought a lot about forgiveness.
    What exactly is forgiveness?
    We teach kids that it goes like this:
    "I'm sorry."
    "It's okay. Let's be friends again."
    And that's forgiveness. But it's not.
    People hurt us and sometimes we hurt people in ways that are not okay. I accidentally bruised my husband's hand when we were moving some furniture. It wasn't a huge deal, but it wasn't okay for a few days (meaning his hand wasn't okay. He had difficulty doing anything with his hand) He still forgave me, even before it was better. So forgiveness doesn't mean, "It's okay that you did that." It means, "I will get past that that happened, even if it hurt."
    Also, forgiveness does not mean that you trust someone, even if you forgive them. You may forgive a pedophile, but you wouldn't ask them to watch your kids.
    I realized that forgiveness is letting go of an issue and letting everyone move on, even if it isn't "okay."
    That is what Christ's crucifixion is about. He suffered in Gethsemane for our sins and then died on the cross. He hurt for our sins and it caused him great pain, so great that he bled from every pore. And he forgives us. Not because it's okay--he died for us--but because he wants us to move past our sins.
    Thank you for your insights.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...