Forgiveness Nuggets 4
We can choose to harden our hearts, building walls around our heart so that we are no longer vulnerable.
Characteristics of a hardened heart:
- Guardedness
- Self-centeredness
- Emotional and social isolation and withdrawal
- Insensitivity to others and to the Holy Spirit
- Lack of understanding and insight
- Critical, condemning perspectives on others and life
- Loneliness
- Alienation
- Anger and rage
- A host of other destructive behaviors
A life of unforgiveness is a life of bitterness and torment. It is a life open to demonic oppression. It is a life of bondage to addictions and compulsive behaviors which seek to gratify the flesh in some hope of alleviating constant emotional stress. It is a life of unrest and violence.
1 John 2:10-11 (NIV)
10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him[a] to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
Eph 4:30-32 (NIV)
30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
A life-style of unforgiveness pollutes our life and defiles others. Have you ever talked badly about someone who you have not fully forgiven and watched the faces of those around you? You just spewed defilement out of your mouth and you can see it by the expressions on their face. I am so guilty of this.
It also results in spiritual, mental and emotional darkness.
Healing starts by identifying those who have offended us and choosing to grant them forgiveness.
I’ve had to choose to forgive someone in my life that I really do not like. I do not ever want this person back into my life, but I’ve discovered that this is ok. God didn’t ask me to invite my abuser(s) back into my life. That would be plain crazy. He did ask me to forgive them. Harder than it sounds sometimes. It goes against our nature to forgive someone who is mean to us and has hurt us deeply. Think of how we treat our Lord and Savior. Yes, you! Do you spend time with Him? Do you push Him off to the side? I’m guilty. He still forgives us. Unconditionally. What a wonderful Savior!
We must ask God to forgive us for living in resentment and allowing our hearts to become hardened. I can be the queen of hard hearts. I build a hard shell around my heart and determine no one is going to hurt me that way again. I not only shut others out of my life but I shut God out, too. The Lord wants our hearts soft and pliable. He is the Potter and what He wants to mold is our heart and shape it into what He intended it to be. We just have to allow Him to do so. Breaking that shell around our heart is not always easy.
2Cor 1:3-4 (NIV)
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
Prayer:
Father, forgive me for gossiping and spewing out of my mouth my resentment and bitterness for those whom I’ve not fully forgiven. Change my heart, God. Create in me a CLEAN, gentle, forgiving heart and renew a right spirit within me! Amen!
Lorilie Nelson
Choosing Forgiveness
John & Paula Sandford and Norm Bowman
Copyright © 1996
Clear Stream, Inc. Publishing
Box 122128, Arlington, Texas 76012
Total Forgiveness
R.T. Kendall
Copyright © 2002
Published by Charisma House
A Strang Company
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
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