Josh Garrels is really good at music. He also speaks hard things in the way of love. Back in January, he said that a lack of forgiveness is truly the worst jail that we can find ourselves in-that even if the broken thing itself can’t be resurrected or reconstructed, that we could at least come to the Lord and find forgiveness.
Resentment is what forms when we don’t come to the place of the cross, the place of grace. We go instead to find comfort in the pain from people who were never meant to be the healer. It’s when we want a shoulder to cry on, an affirmation, someone to tell us, “You have a right to be hurt,” or “That wound is deep. No wonder you’re struggling to forgive. I would be too.” and we seek the justification at a far greater depth than the surrender.
We forget this-it is Christ who avenges, He who justifies. Take heart in David’s cries: “I am poor and needy and my heart is wounded within me.” (Psalm 109:22) and, “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it. If a foe were rising against me, I could hide it. But it is you, a man like myself, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God as we walked about among the worshippers.” (Psalm 55:12-14)
David knew the pain of betrayal; he knew the pain of abandonment and rejection AND HE SPOKE TO HIS FATHER, the God of heaven and the sustainer of his life. He didn’t pretend he hadn’t been wounded. Denying the truth has never lead to healing. But he didn’t shout his wounds from the rooftop or bring them to the next person who crossed his path. He may not have even brought all his wounds to his closest friend on earth.
But he did bear it all before the God who heals. Read any of the psalms and you’ll see he didn’t hold much back either. He believed with every bit of hope he could muster that justification belongs to the faithful God who cares deeply about our broken hearts and our sorrows and the pain inflicted by the fallen man. He understood that the Father heals what no other human can: a crushed spirit, the searing pain of loss, the rejection of man. If no human can heal these hurts, we must be people who do as David did and bear our souls before the God of heaven instead of feeding our resentments with the empty satisfaction of slander.
“Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.” (Psalm 71:20,21)
