Forgiveness

Personally, I don't feel like writing right now... but this morning all I kept hearing was write about forgiveness.  So again, I'm listening. Maybe there's someone out there who needs to hear this, maybe I need to say whatever is about to be typed here, and maybe God is just teaching me to listen to Him. I don't even know what I'm about to say here but here we go...

So, forgiveness. What is forgiveness? How do you define it? My thoughts on this word have changed ever since Jesus has been the center of my life. Jesus forgave those who by human view maybe weren't so deserving of such a gift. We are to live in the likeness of Jesus. We are to forgive all those who have wronged us. Love our enemies. When Jesus forgives, I believe he doesn't keep an ongoing tab of all those wrongs and keep bringing them up to us. He forgives, and the sins are washed away. You can call it forget or something else. In striving to live in the likeness of Jesus I believe we should do the same.

So I've been working on forgiveness lately, actually for the past 11 months. I've been trying to forgive all those who have wronged me even if they haven't apologized and even if their sins are ongoing. When I say apologized I don't mean a quick sorry and then go out and repeat the same thing. That is not being sorry. If you are truly sorry for something you aren't going to keep doing it, at least try not to. And I also feel it's not what you feel but what the other person feels. Let me expand on that. If someone talks down to me and treats me like garbage and I tell them that hurts me and to stop doing it... but they justify it by saying it's helping me, that's no justification at all. You can tell yourself anything. But why would you tell yourself something false? Just to make yourself feel better? A pride issue? To appear to others like you are doing the right thing when really you are doing the wrong thing? Is what you are doing Biblical? If not stop trying to tell yourself it's ok. Well, you can do what you please but one day we will all be judged. But that is another topic of repentance.

But here's the thing. I've been trying to forgive regardless of the other person's actions. I've been trying to understand and believe that in being human we will sin. And for someone unsaved maybe they can't understand the depth of the wrongs they are committing. In forgiving I also believe in moving on. By moving on I don't necessarily mean in the opposite direction... it could very well mean in the same direction, side by side, for in forgiving you are letting that action, that hurt, that sin- go... it doesn't mean you have to let that person go.

I think the hardest part it will come down to is forgiving yourself. When you come to know Christ you start realizing how much you have sinned, how much wrong you have committed and how far off you are from striving to live like Jesus. It will be a hard thing to swallow. So you can wallow in your weakness or you can rise above with Jesus as your strength. You can forgive yourself along with others and move on... become a better person. Be a better person to yourself and to others. And pray that others forgive you.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37