Just Forgive
This is my first blog. I couldn’t write about anything else because it breaks my heart to see so many suffering because they still don’t understand the need of forgiving others… The bible is pretty clear about the topic.
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Forgive
There are some things I just don’t get. Now I’m not trying to set myself up as some paragon of virtue, but I just don’t get how some people who call themselves Christians still don’t seem to understand one of the essential, central, major, critical, points of our Christianity, which is the issue of forgiveness. I have friends here, that I so long to see walking in God’s peace and freedom, but sadly, they don’t, and they won’t unless they return to the truth of the power of forgiveness.
I mean really, our entire FAITH is centred around this truth! Jesus Christ came to not only cleanse us from our sin, but to FORGIVE our sins! Right? We are a “forgiven people.” Our sins have been “washed away.” They’ve been cast into a “sea of forgetfulness” never to be remembered again! Then we are told that God’s love to us is meant to provoke the same desire to forgive and move on, in our own spirits, right? Yes! And NO, He did not forgive us because of how perfect we had become, He forgave us while we were still “dead in our sins and trespasses.” We hadn’t done anything to deserve it, He just DID IT, as He was introducing a new kind of love into the earth.
Something happens to us when we’re truly born again. That old “fight” to hold on to the grievances that others may have done to us, begins to disintegrate and fall away. God’s love starts burning hatred out of us and we find it replaced with a living revelation of His mercy towards us, that makes us WANT TO show mercy to others! I firmly believe a person cannot actually have a revelation of God’s mercy towards themselves, and not WANT to show the same mercy to others.
Jesus had some real strong stuff to say to those who didn’t show mercy to others, after He had shown mercy to them. Go read Matthew 18 and see what it says. He calls the guy a “wicked servant” after the guy having been forgiven himself, refuses to forgive another of the same kind of sin. THAT guy, gets thrown into prison, which is where many “Christians” find themselves today, who refuse to forgive. They’re in prisons of dissatisfaction, family problems, financial debt, you name it, all because they put themselves in positions of future failure, because they refuse to forgive past problems. NOT smart!
Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). He said in Matthew 6:15, “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Again in Luke 6:37 He says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
Maybe the verse that gets me the most though is James 2:12, 13 in the Amplified Bible, “So speak and so act [as people should] who are to be judged under the law of liberty [the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love], for to him who has shown no mercy the judgment [will be] merciless, but mercy [full of glad confidence] exults victoriously over judgment.”
How powerful is that truth? WE, are going to be judged by the “law of liberty” that Jesus Christ demonstrated to us. Then He expects US, to show the same way of living towards other imperfect people. But do we really hear the next bit??? He who shows no mercy, for him the judgment will be mericless! God’s word says “NO MERCY” can be shown those who show no mercy! This is what I just don’t get! In light of such truth, how can people not want to be willing to forgive and be merciful, regardless of the wrong done to them by those around them. We are in a fallen world, and people are going to hurt us, that’s just the way it is. But how can we keep judging others, when we know in our own hearts that we have been forgiven of a multitude of junk ourselves?
Yet I know people today, even good friends, gifted people, who are holding on to tons of unforgiveness, and all for what they call “good reason.” They continue to “seek justice” for the wrong done to them. They refuse to do what Jesus asked of us, to “drop the indictment and let it go.” Its as if they’ve never read the bible at all. Yet they keep wondering why their lives are stuck and not going anywhere, why stuff always keeps happening to them, why they never have enough money, why they just don’t see breakthrough. They just don’t’ see what they’re doing to themselves!
How incredibly sad. All I know is this, Jesus said we’re to forgive EVEN AS we have been forgiven, and we were forgiven in the midst of our sin and ugliness. I mean right while we were in the middle of the mess. We can’t afford NOT to forgive people, as otherwise we find ourselves BOUND, tied to, chained to, failure, lack, unhappiness, sadness. To me that’s just plain old fashioned DUMB.
People will say, “Well you just don’t understand what they did to me!” I answer, “No, YOU just don’t understand what Christ did for YOU!”
It’s just pride, plain old pride, as Proverbs says, “ONLY by pride cometh contention (strife).”
People who don’t seem to be able to move forward need to check out this area first. Are you angry at someone still? Still seeking justice? Still wanting others to “pay up?” That’s your choice, but if that’s you, you’ve forsaken your own mercy. God CANNOT be merciful to you. To me, that’s just crazy, to hold on to unforgiveness in light of such truth. Cut yourself loose from such bondage and foolishness. It has nothing to do with others not deserving your forgiveness. It has everything to do with us forgiving others like Jesus forgave us, so that we might experience His abundant life of joy and freedom. I choose life.
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