On the drive to our next ministry in Zimbabwe, I had a thought about someone I used to be bitter towards:
He had a broken life.
He has held on to the pieces
But it cuts his hands.
He doesn’t know how to hand those pieces to God
And let Him heal the wounds.
It took a long time for me to forgive this person, to turn my bitterness and resentment into genuine understanding and compassion. Now I only desire for this person to be healed and made new by God.
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I continually pray to see people the way God sees people.
God can see who we would have been without sin. This gives Him greater compassion for who we are with sin. He can see our heartbreak and our hurts and He comes with understanding and grace.
I want to see people the way God sees people. Not with anger over the things they’ve done to me, others, or to themselves, but with grace for the reason why. I want to have an understanding of who they would have been if life didn’t disfigure their character, a compassion for who they are because of it, and a desire to help them be free from who they think they need to be to survive it.
It means seeing how glorious one’s character would have been without sin in the world. And contrasting that with who they are. It means understanding how heartbreak and hurts have marred their actions, and having a desire to want them to be closer to who God intended them to be.
I want to be clear that explanation is not justification, that the wrong someone has done is never justified based on their past. But I also see how grace fits. Grace doesn’t justify actions, it acknowledges the truth, but with an understanding for the person’s story that doesn’t let the truth be scarred by bitterness or resentment.
