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Christian Forgiveness by Charlotte Ann Fry, Scribe Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1989 by Charlotte Ann Fry, Scribe. Published by POLITIC. Printed in the United States Of America. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or database, or translated into any human or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, photocopying, recording, manual, or otherwise, or disclosed to third parties without the express written consent of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Making copies of any part of this publication for any purpose other than your own personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws. Many times the true mechanics of forgiveness are misunderstood. Forgiveness is one of the primary keys to a pure relationship with God and a successful Christian love walk. In order to have God's continued forgiveness, we must first forgive. This takes effort, faith, and a quality decision on our part. It is our duty; God is not responsible for our lack of forgiveness. To say, "Forgive
me," or, "I forgive you," is not enough. We must experience forgiveness in
our hearts. Many times we "think" we have forgiven someone, but, when that
person re-enters our life, we react in an emotional, unforgiving manner toward him. This
should not happen if forgiveness has been extended. Have You Forgiven? Here is how we may judge our own hearts. When we forgive someone, we give him the 1 right to have fellowship with us in a pure, new relationship, not expecting "another incident" to occur. We are to be as friendly and loving as we were before the hurt or offense occurred. When we are truly walking in forgiveness, we stand before God pure, clean, and ready to receive all of his promises and blessings. Contrarywise, when we relive the hurtful incident over, and over, having a negative emotional reaction, feeling the same anger, pain, and hurt that we experienced at the time of the offense, we are in unforgiveness.Unforgiveness will lead to resentment and, eventually, hatred, jealousy, or envy. Unforgiveness is a spiritual problem which will ultimately, through the years, have physical ramifications. Jesus told Peter in Matthew 18:21-22,
Jesus simply said, "If we are counting the offenses, we are not forgiving because there is another step:Forgetting." If we are counting the offenses then we are not forgetting them. To forgive is to forget. The Lord says in Isaiah 43:25,
God the Father forgets our sins, "for his sake." God wants to fellowhship with us, he does not want to spend our time of fellowship recalling our sins. Do you want God to keep a tally of your sins, waiting for the time when he does not have to forgive you? Of course not! Once God forgives us he forgets the matter, and that is to be our standard also. This same principle applies to our relationships with others, Christian and non Christian alike. God wants us to enjoy fellowship, not to remember shortcomings and offenses of those who have hurt us. God wants us to see them as he sees them, a holy people, a royal priesthood. We sometimes find ourselves in a position where it becomes impossible to speak with the person we have not forgiven. In my own life, I found some of the people were either dead, or were so far removed from me it was not possible to contact them. It is also possible that the person is not aware he or she has caused any hurt or offense. To approach this type of individual would cause more harm than good. In either case, we may approach God and tell him we forgive the person and he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we find it impossible to forgive others their shortcomings, them we put God in a position of doing the same with us; not fogiving us OUR shortcomings. He will not forgive us because we refuse to forgive others. Sound strong? We need to see what the Bible has to say about this. In the following scripture, we are taught how to approach God in prayer.
It is clearly stated in scripture, if we hold grudges or remain angry, with anyone, then God will treat us the same way, holding our failings and shortcoming against us! Not a very pleasant prospect, but God does not expect us to do something he has not already done himself, in Christ, as we see in Isaiah 44:22,
Not surprisingly, God has the same attitude for those who have not received salvation in Christ. In Ezekiel 18:21-22 we read:
To those who have received salvation, God says,
When we receive forgiveness from our heavenly Father, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, our slate is wiped clean! Forgiveness is easily obtained for a believer. 1 John 1:9 says,
The believer confesses and is cleansed. The non-believer is
not afforded the same right. Scripture requires the non-believer to believe in their heart
and confess with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord and they will be forgiven (Romans
10:9-10). By believing in Jesus and confessing him as Savior, they are cleansed from all
unrighteousness. Then comes the desire to turn from past sinful practices. Forgiveness Is Important To God Look and see how important forgiveness is to God. It is not something we can forget about and hope everyone else does the same. Unforgiveness effects everyone who participates in it; spiritually, physically and mentally. Spiritually in your relationship with God; physically with arthritis, alcoholism, drug abuse, aches, pains, etc; mentally with guilt, condemnation and insecurity. How can this be? When we live in a state of unforgiveness, we are giving place to the devil, allowing him to afflict us with his curses. The word of God clearly instructs us in 1 Peter 5:8,
He can only devour those who are living in disobedience to God's commands. God gave us provision for forgiveness because he knew we would stumble and fall. Although God has made adequate provision for us to live a sinless life, he knows, all too well, the weaknesses inherent in our human nature. That is why God gave us Jesus as our mediator. 1 John 2:1,
It is to our advantage both to listen and to obey the voice of God, forgive our brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, children and spouses, so we may continue to live in harmony with God. If anyone has anything against a friend, relative, brother, or sister, etc., I urge you to do what scripture instructs us to do: go to him and reconcile your differences. Matthew 5:23-24,
And again in Mark 11:25,
God Is Not Swayed By Your Excuses Many people feel that if they tell God how badly they have been hurt then God will allow them to remain in unforgiveness. "But Lord, you don't know how much he/she/it/they hurt me!" Yes he does! God knows the full extent and depth of your hurt and pain.
Do you think this scripture is speaking only of sin or sickness? Infirmities is the inability to produce results. You cannot take away your pain. You cannot remove your disappointment. You need God to do that. God cannot heal the hurt until you are willing to let go of the source of the injury. You must let go of the hot iron before the healing balm will be of any use. Jesus knew hurt and disappointment. Jesus was let down, lied to, betrayed, forgotten, neglected, abused, etc. He always forgave. He always let go of those things that hurt. He always went to his Father for comfort and fellowship. Not only does God know how
badly you were hurt, but he also knows how badly you have hurt him. He knows how deeply
your sin has disappointed him. He knows how cruel your unblief feels. He knows the
brutality of your words against him in the past. Yet he is still eager to forgive you of
those things. He wants your love and your fellowship more than he wants to hold on to the
hurt of your offenses. Conclusion Children often give us some of our greatest wisdom. I want to end this article with wisdom and insight direct from the heart of the Father. A little boy, when asked what forgiveness is, gave this remarkable answer, "It is the smell that flowers give when they are trampled on." 1 Trust Is Earned As I mentioned earlier, true forgiveness requires us to give the person who wronged or offended us the right to have fellowship with us in a pure, new relationship, not expecting "another incident" to occur. However, the nature of the offense may be such that, before fellowship may be restored, trust must first be restored. I will use a very strong scenario as an example to illustrate what I mean. Suppose you are beaten by your spouse or your boyfriend. You are required to forgive him. God expects you to forgive him in the same way God has forgiven you your trespasses against him. But you do not have to trust him, or place yourself in a position where you may, again, be beaten. Forgiveness is automatically extended, but trust is something that is earned. It may be a very long time before he earns your trust. He may never be able to earn your trust again. You may never be able to give yourself to him in the way that you have before. So, while he has the right to have fellowship with you in a pure, new relationship, that fellowship may require a new foundation of trust. So your ability to trust him becomes the prerequisite to his right to a pure relationship. But there are no options with forgiveness. As God forgives, so must his children. |
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