The Power of Forgiveness
Do you find it easy to forgive someone who has hurt you? Or do you find it very challenging? Well, today we will be focusing on the topic: The Power of Forgiveness.
What Is Forgiveness?
Psychologists generally define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness.
Why Should We Forgive?
Matthew 6:
Forgiveness of Your Heavenly Father
14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Seeking Mercy and Forgiveness
One may say that I can’t forgive you because you have hurt me really badly. But let’s count the number of times that we have sinned and done things that provoked God, yet we continue to seek his mercy and Forgiveness.
Becoming Mature in Christ
And we won’t give up until he forgives us. When he finally does, we believe with all our hearts that he forgives us and forgets about our sins.
As children of God, we should have the mind and the heart of Christ within us. We should become so mature in Christ that forgiving one another is not a challenge.
For Our Soul’s Sake
I understand that forgiving someone that has tremendously hurt you is not going to be an easy task. It will require sufficient time to heal and to make such a sincere decision.
However, it’s important for us to understand that we are not forgiving the person because they ask us to, we are forgiving them for our soul’s sake.
For Our Prayers to be Heard and Our Sins to be Forgiven
Not practicing forgiving people for hurting us means that we are living with unforgiveness in our hearts. When we hold on to unforgiveness we are preventing the Lord from hearing our prayers and forgiving us of our sins.
The truth is none of us are perfect, we are all imperfect beings trying to become perfect in Christ and God understands that.
If we want God to always have compassion on us and to forgive us whenever we commit a sin or cause an offense, we should practice the same method toward others. Treating others the way we would want to be treated is the golden rule.
Life can be so unpredictable at times; we may never know when the opportunity to forgive someone will be granted to us again. Even though we may need some time to think and pray about the situation it’s important that we don’t overspend our time thinking that we cause the time to run out on us.
The faster we release a person from our hearts the better it will be for our souls. When we practice forgiving others, our minds and souls will be at peace with the Lord, and it will build our character.
Reasons Why Forgiving Someone Could Be a Challenge
2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
Ephesians 6: 11 -12 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head,
5 Doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Not Acknowledging the Real Enemy
When we acknowledge the real enemy, we will better understand Spiritual Warfare and handle situations on a mature level.
Too many of us are waging war against the wrong person. We should not be fighting with our fellow men. They are not our enemies. This is the reason why it’s a challenge for most people to practice true forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a great challenge because people, sometimes, do not know who their true enemy is. The real enemy in the picture is not the human that you can behold with your naked eyes, the real enemy is Satan.
He is the One that’s behind all the offenses. This is why God desires us to grow and become mature adults in the faith so that we will be able to recognize the schemes and devices of Satan.
One of Satan’s aims is to bring divisions between God’s people and unforgiveness is one of his tactics to create division. When the people are not forgiving, they will not dwell in unity and harmony, and this gives Satan the power to enter our lives and the church to kill, steal, and destroy.
Not Having the Love of God in Your Heart
The next reason why forgiving someone is a Challenge, for most, is they do not have the Love of God. When God’s love is present & activated in our hearts, we will not struggle to forgive anyone no matter how painful the offense is. The Love of God makes a difference in every believer’s life.
A believer can never fully grow in the Lord and become effective without the fruit of the Spirit called Love. The Love of God makes the impossible possible. Without God’s love ruling in our hearts, everything will become a burden and a challenge for us to do.
Especially the things that glorify God and qualify us to enter heaven.
We cannot say we are born of God and yet we don’t have love. God is love and if we are truly born of God we should be filled with his love.
And if we are filled with his love, we should find it easy to for. This is because, at some point in our lives, we all have sinned and fallen short of the Lord’s Glory.
And he constantly forgives us as we pray to him and ask for his Forgiveness. The beautiful thing about God is that he forgives us even before we commit a sin. God expects all of his followers to walk in his footsteps.
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Conclusion:
Now that you have discovered reasons why you find it challenging to forgive someone, it is time to change your language of prayer. Instead of addressing your fellow men, address the Devil. Pray for the Lord to remove all animosity from your heart and fill it with his Agape Love. This way, loving and forgiving others will become a blessing to you and not a burden.
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God bless you!
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