Are you a person who struggles with forgiving those who have hurt you? Forgiveness is not always easy to extend to those who have willingly chosen to bring us or our loved ones harm. By forgiving our offenders, it seems as if we are simply letting them "off the hook" for what they've done. We think that we can somehow punish those who have hurt us by refusing to forgive and holding a grudge toward them. We believe that if we ignore them, treat them badly or even seek revenge, we are making our offenders pay for the pain they have caused. I am extremely and utterly humbled and grateful for the fact that God does not have our same sinful perspective about our offenses toward Him.
If God is in control of everything that happens, why would He allow those hurtful situations to come into our lives? We must realize that those offenses, hurts and misunderstandings all must first be filtered through the hands of our loving Lord before they are even allowed to happen to us. God's greatest desire for us is not to be untouched by the hurts of this world, but for us to be conformed more and more into the image of His dear Son, Jesus. Everything we endure has eternal purposes and is being orchestrated for our good and for God's glory. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." HOW we respond to the wounds we receive is a direct indication of WHAT we believe to be true about our heavenly Father. If we doubt His goodness, His wisdom, and His love for us we will become bitter. No one has any right, for even a moment, to question the goodness of our God! Instead of questioning, we need to TRUST the One who sees all, who knows all and is working to fulfill His sovereign purposes in and through us. God desires to pour out His mercy, love and grace upon us through the process of transforming us to be more like His Son. We can also chose to resist God's mercy, love and grace because of our pride and allow the root of bitterness to take hold in our hearts. Hebrews 12:15 tells us how our bitterness will then defile many others in our lives. "Looking diligently unless anyone fall short of the grace of God; unless any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled." Satan will use our bitterness to bring about our destruction and cause devastion to all of those around us. Our bitterness never punishes those who have hurt us, it simply places us in chains and holds US hostage in a nasty prison that wreaks from the poison in our hearts. Being in bondage to bitterness steals all the joy, peace and contentment that we can savor in this earthly life. It's a lie straight from the master deceiver that our bitterness will ever hurt our offender more than it damages us.
In reality, the prison we think we are holding our offender in, is the very prison WE are being held captive in! Having spent 20 years in the prison of bitterness myself, I’ve seen the destruction that it causes. It almost destroyed my health and my relationships. It consumed my thoughts and stole my joy! I was so blinded by my sin, until I humbled myself and finally realized that if I wanted God to forgive me, I needed to forgive others. Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you REFUSE to forgive others your Father will not forgive your sins.” God has shown me that HE is the righteous judge and it is HE "Who will render to every man according to his deeds." Romans 2: 6. It's never our job to retaliate or punish our offender because God is perfectly capable of handling the problem Himself.
I’ve also learned that forgiveness is not always a “one time” event. Sometimes Jesus calls us to forgive the same person over and over and over again. This is the same kind of forgiveness that God grants to us, over and over on a daily basis for ALL of the things we do to offend Him. God’s ultimate forgiveness is offered through Jesus on the cross and has set us free from the eternal penalty of our sin. May each of us continually humble ourselves and choose to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us. Ephesians 4:32 says, “…forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”
So have we fulfilled our spiritual duty by simply forgiving others, or would God desire us to even go the extra mile to bring Him more honor and glory? Taking offenses one step further beyond forgiveness involves us "seeing" our offender as Christ sees them. Maybe the person who hurt us has a need? Maybe God allowed the situation to come into our life so that we could have mercy on our offender and meet their needs. The grace that God grants us during this situation is quite amazing! We could never humanly muster up enough pity toward those who've wounded us, it's a demonstration of God's grace that enables us minister to them.
I’ve also learned that forgiveness is not always a “one time” event. Sometimes Jesus calls us to forgive the same person over and over and over again. This is the same kind of forgiveness that God grants to us, over and over on a daily basis for ALL of the things we do to offend Him. God’s ultimate forgiveness is offered through Jesus on the cross and has set us free from the eternal penalty of our sin. May each of us continually humble ourselves and choose to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us. Ephesians 4:32 says, “…forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”
So have we fulfilled our spiritual duty by simply forgiving others, or would God desire us to even go the extra mile to bring Him more honor and glory? Taking offenses one step further beyond forgiveness involves us "seeing" our offender as Christ sees them. Maybe the person who hurt us has a need? Maybe God allowed the situation to come into our life so that we could have mercy on our offender and meet their needs. The grace that God grants us during this situation is quite amazing! We could never humanly muster up enough pity toward those who've wounded us, it's a demonstration of God's grace that enables us minister to them.
When Jesus Christ arose from the grave, He could have emerged with a perfect body with no visible traces of the torture and suffering He endured on the cross. Instead, Jesus CHOSE to keep the scars from the nails in His hands as a reminder of His amazing love for us. It is crucial that each of us have this same perspective of the wounds and hurts we've received from others. Once we have forgiven our offenders, the scars that are left behind by their wounds can remind us of God's forgiveness to us and the mercy we must also extend to others by forgiving them. This may seem like a foreign concept to most of us, but that is exactly how our God works. Our natural human inclination to hold a grudge and make our offenders pay for what they've done can be supernaturally transformed through the power of the forgiveness of the cross.
God's ways are higher than our ways and bring us joy, freedom and blessing. Bitterness will lead us into bondage EVERY SINGLE TIME and puts us on the road to destruction. Choosing to forgive will keep us on the road to blessing and ALWAYS set us free! Have you been harboring unconfessed sin that you need to make right with God or others you may have offended? Are there people in your life that you need to extend forgiveness to? Today is the day to make things right and determine what choice you will make the next time someone offends you. Freedom through forgiveness or bitterness through bondage, which one will you chose?
No comments:
Post a Comment