Many people fail to forgive a perpetrator of evil against them, because they do not want to exonerate the person who hurt them. We want compensation and justice for what we suffered, as well as punishment for the offender. This is a very human response, and totally understandable.
However, there is a flaw in the reasoning of this reaction. Unforgiveness keeps us in bondage, and the other person does not even care how we feel. Forgiveness actually frees us from the bondage of unforgiveness in our heart. Also, when we forgive – our self and others, then God is free to forgive us (Matthew 6:12-15).
There is nothing we or anyone else ever does that is unforgivable. God freely forgave us, and we are free to forgive as well. God promises to heap justice, revenge, and judgment on those who hurt us. He keeps all our tears in His bottle, and He writes the cause of them down in His book (Psalm 56:8).
He forgets the iniquity of a remorseful sinner, but never forgets the grief caused by the unrepentant person. When we release others from the debt they owe us due to their behavior toward us, God’s joy floods our soul. It has been said, “We take the perpetrator off our hook, and hang them on God’s hook for Him to bring justice for what they did to us.”
When we continually remember the injustice forced upon us, we lose the opportunity of a possible friendship in the future; but if we forgive them, and show love to them, we open the door for God to forgive us as well (Proverbs 17:9; Matthew 6:14). Kindness, mercy, and forgiveness is the example Jesus set for us all (Ephesians 4:32).
Prayer:
Father God, we thank You for Your forgiveness of us for the attitude, behavior, and habits we committed that offend You (Psalm 51:1-4). Thank You that on Calvary’s cross Jesus paid the penalty of all our iniquity once and for all. Teach us how to walk in Your ways, and strengthen our inner being so we can forgive our self and others (Colossians 3:13).
Your goodness, grace, mercy, and forgiveness toward repentant sinners is quick and complete, and for this, we praise Your name forever and ever. Help us to walk away from temptation and deliver us from satanic forces and the warfare that are all around us. We thank You that we abide in Your Kingdom and power now and forevermore.
Thoughts for the Day:
If we spend our life judging the motive of others and jumping to conclusions without getting all the facts, we hurt our self more than anyone else. Forgiveness allows God to forgive us and not to hold us accountable for our own human failings (Luke 6:37). Forgiveness is a choice and is not a one-time event, but a continual practice that may even last a lifetime (Matthew 18:21-22).
