FORGIVENESS

Unlocking the Prison Door

To be a Christian is to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. C.S. Lewis 

Forgiveness is when you open the door to set someone free and you realise you were the prisoner. Unknown

Forgiveness is the best form of love.

It takes a strong person to say sorry

and an even stronger person to forgive. Unknown

FORGIVENESS IS NOT EASY

TO GIVE TO OTHERS WHEN WE'RE WRONGED,

BUT IF WE DO NOT GIVE IT

OUR HURT AND PAIN WILL BE PROLONGED.

LIKE A WOUND THAT IS INFECTED

AND GETS WORSE AS TIME GOES BY,

WE CAN NOT JUST IGNORE IT

NO MATTER HOW HARD WE TRY.

SOMETIMES THERE ARE NO REASONS

FOR THE THINGS THAT PEOPLE DO, 

NO EXCUSES OR EXPLANATIONS

THAT JUSTIFY WHAT THEY PUT US THROUGH,

BUT REMEMBER...JESUS TOLD US TO FORGIVE

THE SAME WAY OUR FATHER FORGIVES US,

SO WE CAN MOVE TOWARD THE LOVE

INSTEAD OF STAYING BITTER AND CALLUSED.

FORGIVENESS RELEASES THE NEGATIVE

THAT HAS CONSUMED AND TAKEN OVER,

IT FREES US, TO LOVE AND LIVE AGAIN

AS OUR HARDENED HEART GROWS SOFTER.

YES...FORGIVENESS CAN BE VERY HARD

BUT IT'S SOMETHING WE MUST DO,

IF WE WANT GOD TO FORGIVE US

THEN...WE MUST FORGIVE OTHERS TOO!

(A poem called "Forgiveness" by Janet Mullaly Copyright 2008)

In Matthew 18:21-35, we read what is referred to as the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.

Peter has asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother if he sinned against him or offended him in some way. He was expecting a finite number, querying "seven times?" Jesus replied not seven times, but seventy times seven - in effect saying we should always be ready to forgive.

Jesus went on in the passage quoted above to relate a parable of two servants. The first owed his master, the king a huge amount of money, a debt he could in no way, pay. The king ordered his wife and children and all he had to be sold to help clear the debt. The servant pleaded for mercy. The king responded with great compassion for the man, and forgave him all his debt.

The parable continues, as that same servant, whom Jesus calls a wicked servant, went out and found a fellow servant who owed him a small amount of money in comparison with the debt he himself originally owed. When this second servant begged for mercy and to be forgiven his debt, the wicked servant refused, ordering him be sent to prison until he could pay the debt.

The wicked servant was reported to the king, his master, and because he was not willing to show mercy and to forgive his fellow servant, the king ordered him to be delivered to the torturers until he could pay the debt, which you might remember was huge.

Jesus concludes with this very sobering statement: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."

This last verse from Jesus in the above passage reminds me of Jesus' words in Matthew 6:12 and 14, where He says "And forgive us our debts,

                                                        As we forgive our debtors."

"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses."

Sounds so simple, doesn't it - yet many people, even many Christians who should know better, by their stubborn refusal to forgive - are trapped in a prison of unforgiveness, bitterness and even hate towards those who have offended them, in fact, or whom they perceive to have been offended by them.

The Bible says in Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23 tells us For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

As in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant above, we were under God's wrath, having by our sinfulness been deserving of death - the payment for our sin - BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved;)

And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: Ephesians 2:4-6

Hebrews 12:14-15 warns: Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord, watching diligently so that no one falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up to cause trouble, and many become defiled by it.

 TO BE CONTINUED