Matthew 6:14,15
“For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
We are benefiting from an uneven trade. It’s like fooling a senile old person out of a fortune. Except God knows exactly what He’s doing. We are giving pennies and God gives new life, freedom from guilt and shame, freedom from the slavery of sin, a future and a hope, eternity in heaven, good relationships, God fixes future events in our favor and the best of all, we are adopted by God and have a Father/son (or daughter) relationship with Him.
What are the pennies that we give? There are a few things. One is today’s verse, forgiveness. We have been forgiven a mountain of debt; we have to “forgive those who trespass against us”.
Does this mean we can’t have the expectation of rights? No. We have our rights. We can bring situations up when our rights are violated. We also have the right to distance ourselves from those who are abusive. We have to forgive.
Even though we’ve been given much and forgiven much, forgiveness can be difficult. I am ending such a period. These are some coworkers of whom I still have to work closely. When I begin to think of their abusive behavior I feel the anger mount. If I don’t get off that line of thought I’ll need to work through the act forgiveness again. I’ve had to do it dozens of times.
God understands they’ve been abusive and that they’ve wronged us. All have done that to Him. Most live that way. Christians still can. Yet, we hear Jesus, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. We’ve put Jesus on the cross to die for our sins. He willingly went there to sacrifice Himself for us.
God wants us to be like Christ. To forgive others who have hurt us. It’s challenging. He knows that. He helps us. He gave us the man in scripture who shares it’s difficulty. I’ve altered his words to say, “Lord, I forgive help my unforgiveness”. He put that man in the bible to show us the proper attitude. It’s difficult, however God wants us to be like Him and forgive.
There are a couple of things I’ve found helpful. The first is forgiving by faith. The christian life is much about faith. We are to have faith even though our feelings aren’t in it. Forgiveness is like that. We work through the forgiveness process, but the anger comes back. Ignore it and tell ourselves we’ve already forgiven them and move on.
Some ways we demonstrate that faith is to pray and praise. Pray for those who’ve hurt us. Pray for their salvation, pray blessings on them. Praise God that we’ve forgiven them. They no longer have power over us. We’ve forgiven them and have moved on.
This is amazing. We’ve been freed from anger and hurt. He helps us rise above it. Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” The weight of anger doesn’t weigh us down. We can soar.
Thank You, Lord for forgiveness. Such a blessing. Sure it’s difficult, but He is asking us to lay down the poison of unforgiveness. I understand the attraction, but it’s poison. Lay it down. Thank You, Lord.