God's asked me to talk about this and I have to say it's not a topic I really enjoy or am very good at. And that's precisely the reason God's asked me to do it. I'm certainly not perfect and never claim to be - as a matter of fact I wouldn't even consider myself a good person. The simple truth is the only thing that's good in me in Jesus. Left alone and to my own devices I have a tendency to corrupt pretty much every thing around me. Jesus is the only reason that there's anything good in my life and I have no problem admitting to that. So... forgiveness hey. Yeah.
The thing is in life stuff is gonna happen. People are going to lie about you, slander you, hurt you and abuse you - it's just a fact. We live in a corrupted world. Thinking you're not going to get hurt is naive. The sad truth is... it's going to happen. So what do you do when someone hurts you? Is finding out dirt on them and trying to destroy their character in public the answer? Is slandering them behind their back with twisted half truths the way to go about it? How about an all out MMA style fist fight? I jest. Obviously we know this sort of thing isn't the answer but so often we start to tread down those paths. The answer is seeking God and doing what He tells us to do.
The English poet Alexander Pope from the 1700's penned it like this... "To err is to be human, but to forgive is divine". What He meant was simply this - Humans fail and hurt each other, but forgiveness is a quality of God himself. We don't of ourselves have the ability to truly forgive in our human nature - it's a choice of ours to align with the paths of God and to let go of an offence. In Greek as the New Testament of the Bible was originally written the word forgive "aphesis" simply means "to pardon, to release, to let go". The example God gave me is an inflated balloon but instead of the end being tied off as it normally is - it's you holding the end closed. But it's you thats the balloon and the pressure is inside of you.
When you choose to "let go" you release yourself of the pressure of the offence and the pain it causes you. Now I will stop here and clarify something - just because you forgive doesn't mean the other party involved will automatically reconcile with you. We all have choices as humans and they have a choice to either accept or reject your forgiveness. Put very simply God wants us to release that person of the crimes and pain they caused you in your heart first and to adopt an attitude of willingness to reconcile should that person choose to. If the offence continues then wisdom would instruct you to do your best to avoid further incidents while making all attempts for peace.
The Bible says it this way in Romans 12:18 "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." Peace is something we should all strive to live in and bring wherever we go. Does that always happen? No. But should it be our goal? Absolutely. So today, if there's something that's hurt you - no matter how bad it is - choose to start down God's path of forgiveness and let it go. God never asks you to pretend the offence never happened but instead He asks you to objectively look at the offence and then take His hands and choose to let it go. Trust Him and that His paths lead to peace and all the poison and pain of what happened will drain away. Because I'm writing this does it mean I have this all sorted, boxed up and am a professional at forgiveness? I wish. I need God's help with this more than ever. But with His help I know I'll do a whole lot better job than trying to do it on my own. I pray this helps you and leads you to a path that brings peace into your life. God loves and values you. Have a great day.
[ Psalm 34:14 - Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.]
