Forgiveness
It is Required – Part II
Scripture Reading: Matthew 18:21-35
Key Verse: Matthew 6:15
“But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”.
If forgiveness is not an emotion that we feel, then how do we know that we have truly forgiven someone? We know by our behavior.
After we say we have forgiven someone, it is likely that there are times we can prove our forgiveness.
For example, when you are in conversation with someone else, it is easy to start talking about how another person hurt you.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, we must not degrade in any way the person who hurt us. It feels good to our flesh to tell people how terrible that person is and give all the details about how they hurt you.
But, when we are serious about forgiving someone, we practice our forgiveness by refusing to tear down that person’s reputation. We prove our forgiveness over time by how we talk about or treat the person that hurt us.
Another way to practice forgiveness is to pray for the person that hurt you, asking God to bless them. When you first start praying, you may not really want God to bless someone who has hurt you. God knows all about your emotions and feelings. He understands that you cannot get rid of your hurt feelings by your own strength. If you keep saying the prayers, God is faithful to heal your hurt feelings over time.
You may be thinking that there is no way you can forgive that person that has deeply hurt you. Good news… God does not expect you to do that on your own. However, God does want you to jump into the process I have been describing and practice saying the words of forgiveness.
Remember, God never asks anyone to do something that is impossible to do. God helps those that have done all they know to do in this process of forgiveness. Once we have reached the end of our resources, we find God’s there waiting to get us to the finish line!
It may surprise you that Jesus laid down standards for His followers to live by. These standards are non-negotiable if we plan to continue to His Kingdom. One of these standards is offering forgiveness to those who hurt us. No matter how hard we feel it is, we must work through this process of forgiveness.
Father, You know the deep hurt that I feel. I cannot forgive by my own strength. Please grant me Your power and wisdom to give forgiveness. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.