We were created to use our passions, gifts and abilities for God’s glory in the world around us. To emancipate the greatness He put inside of us, we first have to allow Him to restore our hearts. While holding onto the past hurts, only hinders us from moving forward, there’s real power in forgiveness to set us free! Because Christ has so graciously forgiven us, we are called to forgive others in the same way.
This past week has been one of the harder weeks I’ve had in a long time. I’ve felt burdened in a way I haven’t ever felt before. My heart has been hurting so much due to offense. It’s so easy to be offended these days and we as a culture do not know what to do in situations of offense. My pain this week is due to handling offense in a way that doesn’t honor the Lord. I don’t care who you are, at some point, we all have been/ or will be offended by someone or something. It’s just apart of life, and with anything in life, there is a right way and wrong way to handle it.
Colossians 3:12-14
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
God commands us to forgive.
As this past week progressed and the pain I was feeling was deepened, I realized something. Offense isn’t the problem. Unforgiveness is. It dawned on me, I don’t have the first clue on how to forgive from a genuine place in my heart. Sure I can say in my head I forgive and even trick myself into believing its true. But what happens every time I feel hurt by someone? OFFENSE
Prolonged unchecked offense is just a symptom of something much deeper. And that’s been the hardest part of the past 7 days.
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
It’s crazy the amount of time we spend consumed by grudges, fights, hatred, and strife. I realized something. The pain that I feel when someone hurts me, it’s real. The hurt is real and there are so many people that suffer everyday because of the cruelty of humanity. And we Christians are very good at minimizing the pains of others. We say “give it up to God! If someone’s hurts you forgive them and move on” But we aren’t God. God forgives our sins and remembers them no more. But at the end of the day we are just flawed people and for some reason we have the hardest time forgetting offense.
But I can’t do it anymore. Holding on to unforgiveness is to heavy for me to bear. It’s not something that God has called me to carry. The unforgiveness in my life hurts me and also hurts those that I care about. And I didn’t even realize that I was walking so deeply in it.
It’s kind of like prison. Saying “you did this to me and until you pay me back for what you’ve done I’m gonna keep you imprisoned here”
But what I don’t realize is that keeping them in prison is very costly to me. Why?
Because I have to stand guard in there with them in prison. And that’s what we do when we hold offenses and grudges and unforgiveness. We keep the person locked up in our hearts and we don’t even realize that the other person is just living there lives and probably has no idea the hurts they’ve caused. Is that their fault? NO
Matthew !8:21-35
The Parable of the unforgiving servant
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
So the man owed the king a lot.
He owed 10,000 talents of gold.
1 talent of gold = 20 years of pay to the average person
he owed 10,000 talents!
That’s 200,000 years of paychecks
The King not only forgave the mans debt. But The king also let him go.
But what did the servant do?
He went and saw a debt that was owed him. And he strangled his fellow servant for it. 100 silver coins was owed. Which by the way equals about 100 days of pay.
It’s crazy! The servant had just been forgiven 200,000 years of debt by the King and instead of being grateful for what the King did, He went and strangled his neighbor wanting what was owed to him back.
I am that servant.
Christ forgave me much and I strangle my fellow servant for little.
I feel like a terrible person. God has done so much for me. He’s delivered me out some very dark places and brought me into green pastures. This blog isn’t a teaching blog. It’s a confession blog! How can I help others if I can’t forgive? How can I say that I love others, if I cannot forgive? My heart is heavy. Not just for the hurt and pain that I carry because of unforgiveness. But also for the many others that are going through the same thing.
I was crying out to the Lord yesterday in the anguish of my pain I found myself not knowing what to do. I said to the Lord “I see my unforgiveness, but feel powerless over it”
That’s scary to me. All I can do is trust God is the purification process.
A brother may repent to another brother but the Lord is the only one that can restore his heart.
Psalm 139:12-18
for you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them
But in the end, God is still good and cares deeply about you and me. Please Lord help us and forgive us for we not what we do.
