Forgiveness
So I've been reading a lot lately about, well a lot of things, but one in particular has been forgiveness. I had always thought that to forgive someone it meant you had to ignore what happened and try to forget about it. This is something that I struggled with, a lot. I struggled with forgiving myself, and with others. I really wanted to learn how to forgive properly.
The devotional book I'm reading had a whole devotion on forgiveness and man it hit me hard. I came to find out that I wasn't even close. My view on forgiveness was upside down and backwards. I really did believe it was all internal and it was my job to figure out how to basically forget. That's not what it's about at all. It's acknowledging that the hurt happened but releasing that burden to God. Whatever happened needs to be resolved between them and God. It's not easy but knowing that it's not my job to try and forget makes it better.
We are human, we will make mistakes. Some mistakes are smaller and some are big. But we can't continue with life if we're carrying a burden that isn't ours to bare. It's like being in a prison where everyone in a cell is someone who hurt you. You can see each face and how they hurt you and there is a voice saying to release them, but you don't want to. As you wander you realize that you are a prisoner as well. Your forgiveness, anger, and bitterness have made you a prisoner as well.
Releasing this to God can be scary and there is a risk involved with it. We want to be angry, we want to hold that grudge but as Christians we aren't called to hold on to these, we are called to release them to God. Again, forgiving someone doesn't make it like it didn't happen or take away the blame or even erase it with God, It simply turning it over to God. That wrong, that hurt is between them and God now. Sometimes you'll see a result and a change, sometimes you won't. But taking that burden and giving it over to God is vital for healing ourselves, if we don't then the devil wins, he has been successful in dividing us from God, or family, and our friends. This will cause anger, hate, and sadness to spread in our lives further separating us from God, and that imprisons us.
I've messed up in my life, some small and some big. I've prayed and prayed for forgiveness. The first step is forgiving myself and that is really hard. I have been working very hard on that. The next step is make changes in my life that will last. It's a process and honestly it's something that we really should be constantly working on. We should be always working to better ourselves and keep our focus on God. I can't be a servant of God if I'm going to let this burden weigh me down.
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that the prisoner was you." Lewis Smedes
The devotional book I'm reading had a whole devotion on forgiveness and man it hit me hard. I came to find out that I wasn't even close. My view on forgiveness was upside down and backwards. I really did believe it was all internal and it was my job to figure out how to basically forget. That's not what it's about at all. It's acknowledging that the hurt happened but releasing that burden to God. Whatever happened needs to be resolved between them and God. It's not easy but knowing that it's not my job to try and forget makes it better.
We are human, we will make mistakes. Some mistakes are smaller and some are big. But we can't continue with life if we're carrying a burden that isn't ours to bare. It's like being in a prison where everyone in a cell is someone who hurt you. You can see each face and how they hurt you and there is a voice saying to release them, but you don't want to. As you wander you realize that you are a prisoner as well. Your forgiveness, anger, and bitterness have made you a prisoner as well.
Releasing this to God can be scary and there is a risk involved with it. We want to be angry, we want to hold that grudge but as Christians we aren't called to hold on to these, we are called to release them to God. Again, forgiving someone doesn't make it like it didn't happen or take away the blame or even erase it with God, It simply turning it over to God. That wrong, that hurt is between them and God now. Sometimes you'll see a result and a change, sometimes you won't. But taking that burden and giving it over to God is vital for healing ourselves, if we don't then the devil wins, he has been successful in dividing us from God, or family, and our friends. This will cause anger, hate, and sadness to spread in our lives further separating us from God, and that imprisons us.
I've messed up in my life, some small and some big. I've prayed and prayed for forgiveness. The first step is forgiving myself and that is really hard. I have been working very hard on that. The next step is make changes in my life that will last. It's a process and honestly it's something that we really should be constantly working on. We should be always working to better ourselves and keep our focus on God. I can't be a servant of God if I'm going to let this burden weigh me down.
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that the prisoner was you." Lewis Smedes
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