FORGIVENESS

Well hello again. Forgiveness has been on my mind a lot so I thought I would share some of my experience with it.

The best meaning of forgiveness I can find is : a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. It does not mean forgetting, nor does it mean condoning or excusing offenses.

I want to first of all list a few scriptures:

1: Matthew 6 14-15 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.

2: Luke 23:34 Jesus said Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.

Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever you may have against on another. Forgive as the Father forgave you.

Is forgiving someone easy? Not in my personal opinion. It is one of the hardest things I have ever done. Honestly I still at times find it hard to forgive. I must say forgiving myself is also very hard to do at times.

I bet your are thinking you must have had an easy life that you can forgive. The answer to that is no. My Father checked out when I was very young. My stepfather was quite mean and mentally abusive. The love of my life was murdered and taken from us. Friends, Pastors, children and on and on it can go.

So how did I do it? For me it finally came down to this: Did I truly believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and was willing to forgive me? Yes only if I forgave others. I do not know the path that any of these people walked before they came into my life. I know the pain they caused me. I am sure most of them suffered in their lives as well.

In the case of both my real Dad and my stepfather I was able to forgive them and have a relationship with both. I am grateful that neither of them passed with me harboring resentments towards them.

In the case of the man who murdered my husband many years ago; actually feels like another lifetime I did forgive him. I also witnessed his execution. Some will say I did not forgive him, but I know in my heart I did. I believe he had to answer for his crimes. I did pray that he would find Christ before he left this world and entered eternity.

Now if you have read this far and you are not a believer please stay a few minutes longer with me.

Unforgiveness can make you sick and bitter. It also gives the person or thing power over you. How many of us have wasted precious time, even years harboring extreme hate toward someone you refuse to forgive? Believe me that does more harm than good. I held on to my resentments for far to long. For me only turning my life over to God help me overcome those things that kept me down. I tried justifying them and saying they deserved my unforgiveness and maybe some did but that did not help me live a full happy life. I still struggle daily and again if you are not a believer please try to forgive those that hinder you from living a full life.

In the current world will live in there are things that happen every day we can choose to forgive, not condone or accept the behavior or person just forgive.

I ask you today as we part please do some self reflection. Do you need to forgive someone or perhaps yourself. If there is anyone or thing that you always complain about even if it happened years ago then perhaps you have not truly forgiven them.

If you treat the people around you a certain way (micro-manage) because someone at another time did you wrong, perhaps you have not truly forgiven the person.

If you can not have a loving relationship perhaps you have not forgiven someone who truly hurt you. Maybe you were the one who did the hurting please forgive yourself.

I am not saying run out and take back anyone who has wronged you I am saying forgive them and let them go. Move on and live a better life.