|
If
you want God's forgiveness, you must learn to forgive others as
well. To say that you forgive but you can't forget, is not
God's way to
let go of a wrong done to us or to forget our own mistakes.
Learn to
forgive God's way! |
Learn To Forgive God's Way
|
Christ
died on the cross for our sins,
yet many Christians live with guilt and worse unforgiveness for others.
I'm sure Christ must wonder why we continue to live in misery when we
are purified of sin by His shed blood. We can be FREE of sin, sickness,
and spiritual death if we choose to accept or believe that God has
forgiven us immediately when we ask.
Even
if we accept God's forgiveness of our sins, if we're unable
to forgive ourselves or others, we
will harbor self-loathing,
bitterness, anger, and hatred. All these emotions lead to
illness,
depression, meanness, selfishness and perhaps premature
death. Unforgiveness
zaps us of our compassion, creativity and the loving
nature of Christ we're to extent to others. Many
times people say, "I will never forgive that
person." But what they're really saying is that they don't
want to
live their lives to the fullest. I say this because we don't
hurt the
person we should forgive, we hurt ourselves. Yet this isn't
the first
reason to let go of the hurt and pain others have caused
us. We
forgive first because
God tells us to do so, and because He always forgives
us when we ask. And
what does God say if we don't forgive others? That
He won't forgive us according to Mark 11:26. Don't you
want to be forgiven? If you're not, you can't have answered
prayer.
We are also told that when we pray we must stand before God in
forgiveness of
all. This also includes yourself. So
when you can't forgive you're actually allowing the person who hurt
you to continue to hurt you for the rest of your life. And if
you can't
forgive yourself, then you are punishing yourself for
nothing. By knowing
that God forgives all, you can do the same for
yourself and for
others. Either
live all of God's Word or none of it. What good is it
to go before God in prayer if you are not fulfilling one of it's
essential
elements, which is
forgiveness? |