Can You Forgive?

Faith Filled Thoughts
August 13th, 2009
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Can You Forgive?

An unforgiving heart is good soil for anger and sin.
Anger gives birth to resentment, bitterness and hostility. . .
We expect life to be fair.
God is really in control and He allows these things to happen.
In tribulations we are tested and this is a gift of God, (Phil. 1:29).
Difficult times should produce spiritual maturity, as St. James said (1:2 -4).


Since forgiveness is rooted in love, a brief look at Christian love may help us understand,
in a fuller sense, the act of forgiveness.
AGAPE, the Christian love, is limitless and unchangeable even when the object of that love is changing.
When our Lord commanded us to love our neighbor, he made it very clear that the world around us is that neighbor.
On the basis of distinction and likeness, a person stops being that neighbor.
Though different from us, a person is still very close to us,
because that person is a neighbor on the basis of equality with us in front of God, and that equality is unchangeable.
“The Christian love is spontaneous and unmotivated.
Love directed to sinners is intended to disclose its independence and sovereignty,” said Nygren.
God loves us because of who He is and not because of what we do or don’t do to deserve that love.
God’s love is very much indifferent to value.
Nothing in and by itself (apart from God) has a self-rooted worthiness or value,
but actually, it is the love of God which gives the object of that love VALUE and WORTHINESS.
That which is not worthy or valuable acquires its utmost value and work from being loved by God.
AGAPE does not require value, it creates it.
Our neighbor needs not only our love, but our forgiveness also.
If we are to extend forgiveness, we must overcome the roadblocks of fear, pride, revenge, self-pity and social pressure.
FEAR that our forgiveness will put a stamp of approval on the other person’s actions.
It gives the person who hurt us the license to hurt us again and again.
Forgiving makes us vulnerable and we fear that.
If you tell a lie about me and I forgive you, then the lie must be true, some may reason.
This fear measured against the love and forgiveness of our Lord does not have a leg to stand on.
Our forgiveness is based upon our pure love toward the other person whether they will hurt us again or not.
Our forgiveness is an answer to Christ’s call to forgive and is not motivated by human reasoning.
Forgiveness does not approve of the wrong, but erases it.
Our forgiveness indicates our love for the person committing the wrong, and not the wrong action.
At times, we drown ourselves in a sea of self-pity which prevents us from reaching out
to receive the hand of our loving and forgiving Lord who can help us deal with our wounded selves.
Self-pity is one of the most devastating roadblocks to forgiveness, because it magnifies the self,
the hurt and prevents us from looking at the wrong doer with any kind of loving and caring perspective.
Only in identifying with the other can we really understand and forgive.
We, at one time or another, may engage in a similar wrong doing which requires forgiveness.
One wrong act is not sufficient reason to devalue a person.
Like ourselves, the other person is capable of weakness, confusion, fear, panic and frailty.
Identifying with the other is a necessary step in penetrating the otherwise impenetrable wall of unforgiveness.
In love we put the act in perspective and view it apart from the person.
Forgiveness allows us to see only the love in others and ourselves.
Forgiveness is freeing ourselves from the past, transforming the present and securing a love-filled future.

May He Bless You and Keep You Today!
With Great Love
IN HIS SERVICE
Connie
Please click below to see something Jesus left for your Spirit!:
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