“Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”
Colossians 3:13 (NLT)
“Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise, you’ll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God’s generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time.”
Hebrews 12:14-17 (MSG)
Harboring your heart steals most of the joy from your life and robs you of a great deal of peace. It buries your ability to be patient with others. It turns your kindness into something prejudiced and selective. It stains all that goodness in you. John DeMartini, a human behavior expert and author said, “Unforgiveness warps your mind into thinking you are a self-controlled person, when in reality you’re out of control.” Kerry Shook, a pastor and author said, “Keeping score just brings you more pain and causes a whole lot of pain for others.” And David Smith in an article called Love Doesn’t Keep Score, “Such a spirit is fit only for a cross, and a cross is precisely what God did with it. If anyone has a right to resent and not forgive, it is God. He is misunderstood, denied, miss quoted and defied, and has been since the fall.”
But how does God respond to all this abuse? He reconciles, rather than resents. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:19 in the New Living Translation, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.”
Listen carefully. When you step up and forgive someone who has offended you, even though you think they don’t deserve it, you are stepping into God’s grace, and God’s grace is some place that Satan cannot go.
Your prayer might go something like this. “Dear God, I know it is the right thing to do to forgive. Please help me to forgive, help me to be obedient. In Jesus Name, Amen.”