|
|
Dear Friends,
This month we are sharing about the power and necessity of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a vital part of our life for many reasons. If you can’t think of any other reason to forgive, consider obedience to God. His Word tells us to forgive, and that’s enough reason by itself—just because God said so! The thing is, it’s for our own good. Holding on to unforgiveness hinders our faith. It becomes like a weight in our spirit, slowing our progress in our walk with the Lord. Ugh! It blocks our relationship with Him! We should ask ourselves, What is so unforgivable that I would let it hinder my personal relationship with God?
As we celebrate Mother’s Day this month, we might consider that not everyone has warm, loving feelings when thinking of their mother. The reality is that some may have had a mom who really let them down, or they grew up in an abusive home, or their mom abandoned them. Others may have had a wonderful mom, yet may not have treated her with the love and respect she deserves and need to forgive themselves to move ahead in life.
In whatever area of unforgiveness you may find yourself, you CAN forgive. Please don’t feel like I’m belittling your pain. I certainly understand that some things we go through in life are extremely painful. I endured physical, emotional and sexual abuse in my childhood. That was extremely painful for me. No doubt you have endured things that may seem even worse. The point is, I lived a lot of my Christian life with so much anger and bitterness because of what had happened to me. I was experiencing the weight of unforgiveness, and it was blocking my spiritual progress and my relationship with God. When the Holy Spirit confronted me about it, I had to make a decision—to be bitter or better. I chose better. I chose to forgive.
We all have to make a quality decision like that at some point in our walk with God. By quality decision, I mean that when we decide to forgive, we know that it’s going to involve some suffering in the flesh, but we are determined to see it through. I encourage you to make that quality decision right now. Then study what the Word says about forgiveness and seek the Lord for His specific direction for your life. He wants to lead us all into a deep, intimate relationship with Himself, but unless we are willing to forgive, that intimacy will be blocked.
You may notice that it’s hard to really enjoy the presence of God when you’re bitter about something—even if you feel justified in your anger. It just seems like something’s not quite right. And it’s not…unforgiveness is blocking the flow.
The Father has forgiven us so we can forgive others—He gives us mercy so we can be merciful. So we can’t very well receive from Him if we are unwilling to give to others what He’s given to us. And He has given us so much! Now here’s a question for you: If you owed someone $10 million and they said, “Aw, forget it…I forgive you,” would you turn around and make someone else pay the $20 they owed you? Here’s the answer: Do yourself a favor… Forgive!
God bless you,
|
