Forgiveness

One of the hardest things our Heavenly Father commands is forgiveness.  Forgiveness never comes in a package that is easy to open.  It is often wrapped with heartache, deep pain, anger, resentment, offense, and at times even broken lives.  It takes great effort and strength to open it.  And in some circumstances, forgiveness will even seem humanly impossible.

This is where the Lord’s supernatural strength and power will need to be called upon.

Forgiveness is never asked of us because it is easy.  It took our Lord giving us His one and only son Jesus, to be HIS ultimate sacrifice for OUR sin.  The most perfect, unblemished, spotless and undeserving man in all of creation.  Jesus was the most unlikely suspect to be crucified upon that cross for the forgiveness of all of humanity.  Never with sin, yet He took on all of ours. And yet this is the very reason why God chose him!  There was nothing easy about His choice, and there is nothing easy about ours either.

Forgiveness is a choice.

With the many emotions we are gifted with as humans, it is easy to make life’s decisions based on them. But forgiveness is one of those things that human feeling will never surrender to.  At least not in those hardest moments in life.  It will only be unleashed with the help of Jesus, and over time, He will transform that choice into healing.  We are called to forgive in ALL circumstances we are offended in, because He forgives us in ALL of ours.  God’s word says that we must forgive others sin or He will not forgive us.  “But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:15  The Lord would never have said this if it was an impossible task. But we must value the sacrifice given us, in our own forgiveness of sin. The cost of our sin took the very life of God’s son, yet He gave Him anyways. ALL of us guilty as charged.

I have experienced at least one instance in my life when offering forgiveness seemed impossible!  It felt as though I had been wounded beyond repair, and I had emotions flowing throughout my body that I never knew were possible! But I feared God’s unforgiveness more than I did those feelings, and I chose to trust Him at that moment and make the hardest choice I have ever made.  With deep gratitude in my heart for what Christ had done to give me His forgiveness, I asked Him to help me forgive another.  I am convinced that it was only because of this, that I was healed. Healing is only found in the blood of Jesus.

Unforgiveness festers and grows, giving birth to even more anger, hurt, and negative emotion. It makes our heart sick. Unable to love others as we are made to love. Sometimes we even hold unforgiveness towards ourselves, but it is all the same in our Father’s eyes.  We are just as loved as those who have trespassed us, and the Lord will unleash His power not only to help us make the choice to forgive, but to free us and HEAL like we never imagined possible.

With Love-  April

Colossians 1:13-14

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.