Forgiveness Nuggets 8
Matt 6:14-15 (NIV)
14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matt 7:17-18 (NIV)
17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
It is important to forgive yourself. This was and still is hard for me sometimes. I look at all the horrible things I’ve done and all the things I should have done and didn’t do and I can go into a deep, depressed pit. I have to forgive myself. I can’t change my past, but I can ask God to forgive me and I can forgive myself. He can heal our wounds from the past.
Usually, weaknesses we see and criticize in others (and find most difficult to accept or forgive) are those things about which we have not forgiven ourselves, or in which we most fear being deficient.
Look at what angers you in others. Look at the kind of person you just can’t abide, and you will likely see something in yourself that you have been unable to forgive.
Rom 2:1 (NIV)
1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
The Holy Spirit will only bring healing to those who are willing to be cooperative. We have to let go of our fear of the truth and trust God to forgive us just as we are. Then we can begin to forgive ourselves and learn to relax in the shelter of God’s grace.
Unforgiveness gets stuck in us like rust on an old frying pan.
“Well, I’ve forgiven him, but I don’t have to like him; and besides, he did that on purpose!” “He doesn’t even feel sorry for what he’s done!” We hate people we blame for doing us wrong.
In reality, forgiveness is so difficult to accomplish because all our grudges are expressions of hate, given dwelling places in our heart.
Grudges also are sin.
Only through the blood of Jesus does God grant the power to cancel sin and grant forgiveness.
Believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has power to accomplish forgiveness in us, through us, for us. That is the message of the Cross.
Col 3:12-14 (NIV)
12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Repent of our own part in the subtle dynamics that cause relationships to be broken.
Col 3:9-10 (NIV)
9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
We lie to ourselves and to each other when we insist we are lily white and the other person is all wrong.
We must recognize our own sin and repent of it. Recognition of sin and repentance breaks the cycle and begins to set us free.
Admit our own inadequacy to achieve forgiveness and humbly seek the Lord’s help.
Prayer:
Father, help me to see my own sin as You see it. I ask you to help me forgive myself for not being who you intended me to be. My heart is not where it should be when it comes to forgiving certain people. Help me, Jesus, by the power of the Cross and the blood you shed on it to be a forgiving person. Day by day, moment by moment. 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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