"Forgiveness always seems so easy, when we need it, and so hard when we need to give it." anonymous
Why are you so angry all the time? That was the question my wife asked of me the other day. My response was "I am not angry that is just the way I talk!" My wife knows me very well…. Sometimes too well. I sent her a phone message the next day that said "I don't know what is going on but if you hear anything let me know ….. I need help. She comes home that evening and says "I think you have un forgiveness towards your brother. " You know you are hearing the Lord when someone tells you something and it just makes your insides turn. I truly though that I had forgiven him over the last instance. When he came to the DFW area and did not stop off to see me. This is what I know about forgiveness. Forgiveness does not come easy for most of us. Our natural instinct is to recoil in self-protection when we've been injured. We don't naturally overflow with mercy, grace and forgiveness when we've been wronged. I have always been quick to forgive but evidently not this time. It has poisoned me and I don't like it. So today I choose to forgive me brother. Tomorrow I will have to choose to forgive me brother. That does not mean that what he did was right it just means that I forgive him.. I am not going to write out a prayer, but the Lord knows my heart. Please forgive me.
I have sent my brother an email to start the process
Colossians 3:13
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (NIV)
Luke 6:37
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. (NIV)
Matthew 6:14-16
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (NIV)
Mark 11:25
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. (NIV)
Your word just spoke to me Kee. I was just prompted to forgive a couple of people, including my wife. The tough part is knowing I will have to do it again and again. Logically, it's tough to keep forgiving someone for doing the same things over and over again, but God only knows how many times I've done that to Him.
ReplyDeleteLove you bro.
Cory
My wife knows me best. Holy spirit uses her to speak into me. I thank her for te conviction I get. Being right and winning doesn't matter anymore.
ReplyDeleteMark
I believe I needed to read that.
ReplyDeleteI keep running back to my favorite sin and I feel like I've never forgiven my father for exposing me to such horrible things. I Feel provoked by my sinful thoughts of pornography every day. I`ll be stable for about two weeks then my barrier falls apart then I go back to my sinful ways. I think I can't overcome this obstacle because I'm about to start my second job and I feel that I won't have any time for that sin and that's what I hope happens if it doesn`t happen I need some help.
Alex Palitti
Kee, I commend you for your loyalty to the commitment you're making to forgive him. Also your courage in doing so. If I may, in the hopes my small thought might help in some way... Something that came to mind as I read, even before I got to the verses you quoted. When we make the commitment to forgive someone as the LORD forgave us, there must be a death associated with the sin. A severance of the way that person was held in our mind BEFORE forgiveness, and who they are to us after we forgive them. God told us He cast our sins as far from us as the East is from the West. We have become dead to that sin, and all evidence washed away. The hardest part of forgiving someone for me is treating them as the new person without picking back up what I already forgave them for in the first place. Good luck Brother! CHAZAQ!
ReplyDeleteKorey
SO TRUE....this! Love it!
ReplyDeleteDavid Butterbaugh