Most people equate forgiving someone to weakness. Why should I forgive them because they hurt me so bad or they don’t deserve it or okay, a million other reasons. Another statement that is often heard is that forgiveness means I must trust that person again and place myself back under their control. The fact is that forgiveness releases you from the control that person has over you because you are literally carrying their indiscretion and the subsequent hurt around with you. That is not good for anybody.
I had a situation occur in my life a few weeks ago where someone hurt me very badly. You know those situations where someone is mad at what happened to them but blames and then touches your core values. I had a few days to ponder on the situation and when the opportunity arose, the person asked for my forgiveness and I forgave them. What happened after that? The relationship was restored, the people around us had their relationships restored with both parties, the atmosphere became much calmer and nobody has spoken of it since. Why? Because there is power in forgiveness.
Think about what Jesus did for us. He came to earth and was born, grew up and started His ministry. He had probably thousands of times where He felt unforgiving eg the Pharisees gave him a hard time, they questioned His motive and His purpose, people weren’t thankful when they were healed, His disciple betrayed Him, He was beaten and accused when He had done nothing wrong and on top of that He was sentenced to die for committing no crime. What was Jesus’ response? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” What? After all that? Yes, because Jesus knew the power of forgiveness and He still does. He knew that mostly if we knew what we were really doing, we wouldn’t do it.
Jesus is still offering that same forgiveness today. All we have to do is believe that what He did on the cross was for us, repent of our sins and ask Jesus to come and help us live the abundant life He wants to give us. It’s that simple. You will then feel cleansed and whole.
This week if you have been holding unforgiveness in your life towards someone or can’t forgive yourself, ask Jesus to help you and He will. You deserve to live the abundant life Jesus came to give you.
Come on – you can do it! You are amazing and keep living the life God intended for you!
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