Forgive and Forget
Luke 6:35 I’m telling you to love your enemies and do good to them. Lend to people without expecting to get anything back. If you do this, you will have a great reward. You will be children of the Most High God. Yes, because God is good even to the people who are full of sin and not thankful.
I wonder if there’s one person in your life whom you’ve found difficult to forgive, one person for whom that deep sense of injustice and unforgiveness is still brooding deep in your heart. So, how’s that going for you, then?
Have you ever wondered ‘exactly what does it mean to forgive’? We all know that we should forgive, but the truth is that it’s much easier said than done.
Jesus says things that at first blush sound completely bonkers, but in the end, make powerful sense. Like this:
Luke 6:35 I’m telling you to love your enemies and do good to them. Lend to people without expecting to get anything back. If you do this, you will have a great reward. You will be children of the Most High God. Yes, because God is good even to the people who are full of sin and not thankful.
Look, when someone wrongs us we carry a heaviness and a hurt around in our hearts. And the longer we hang on to that, the worse it gets. The problem is that it’s so, so difficult to forgive. It’s so, so difficult to let go of that. We know we should, but how?
Well, here it is, listen again:
I’m telling you to love your enemies and do good to them.
When it’s difficult to forgive, start praying for that person. Start thinking, “What can I do to bless them?” You know, it always starts off feeling upside down. It’s not natural to bless your enemy. It certainly doesn’t seem fair.
But forgiveness is like a muscle that you need to exercise and the more you do, the stronger it becomes. Little by little, the heaviness and the hurt go away.
You never forget what happened, but somehow you “forget” that the person who hurt you owes you something.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
Blessed by this devotion?
Share it with a friend!
Respond
Michael Adams
To forgive and Forget For a person to lose a spouse they will become a widow or widower, for a child to lose their ...
more
To forgive and Forget
For a person to lose a spouse they will become a widow or widower, for a child to lose their parents will become an orphan but when a parent lose a child that there is no word to describe that excruciating pain of have their child taken away from them because over someone arrogance. Jesus was a just and righteous person and he has the right to forgive an forget but how can we have that burden forced down upon us if that person cannot understand or want to understand that they did something wrong. Are we just supposed to turn our back and just looked the other way as if nothing happened. This is just a conundrum that we have to face to find that wisdom that can bring us closer to the true understanding of God.