With yesterday’s entry and this message I received from Pastor Andy, I feel the Lord is pointing me to a specific person I still need to forgive. TRUST ME … I am justified in my ill feelings towards him … or am I???
One of the hardest things for a believer to do is to forgive. It should be the easiest, and you might be thinking right now, that’s not the hardest, but let me explain. When we have been wronged, we are hurt, and being a believer, we might be prone to say, “I have to forgive them.” And you might mouth the words, but do you really forgive? Have you merely just spoken the words, and think from that point on you have forgiven. But something in you is different. It’s something growing inside you that you don’t even realize, or you try to ignore. It’s a seed of bitterness, of anger, of resentment, of unforgiveness. Think back to the time you had to forgive someone who wronged you. Did you restore the love you had for that person before the wrong was committed? I’m not talking about the words spoken, but that which is hidden in the heart, that won’t leave you alone. That, my friend, is the seed of unforgiveness. Let’s look at it this way: “Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Above all, put on love – the perfect bond of unity.” Colossians 3:12-14 It’s kind of like faith and works. Show me your faith without works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works. Show me your forgiveness without restoration, and I’ll show you my forgiveness with true love, restoring such a one, to the place of unity with another. There is the issue. We say we forgive, then something has changed, and it might not be in you, it might be the other party. But forgiving is also forgetting, and restoration of the relationship in the bonds of love, for the sake of unity of the body. It’s no wonder we struggle with forgiveness, when we so easily say the words, but will not put love behind the words, and will not put action of restoration behind the words. Think of that person you have forgiven. Have you restored a right relationship with that person? Do you harbor some hidden changes toward that person deep within you? If so, today is the day to come clean. Today is the day of total forgiveness, and restoration of a wronged relationship with the spirit of love that exist in you, I know it does. Start putting that forgiveness to work, and make that relationship right again. Then you will find the bond of true unity, that is the hallmark of the believer. The result of love put into action.
Father, restore a right relationship inside us with You, and with others that we have wronged and who have wronged us. May our forgiveness be whole and genuine. May the light of Your truth permeate those who read this, and may You bring us once again to the place of true and honest forgiveness, just like what You have for us. I pray this in Jesus name.
Barnabas Man 