Forgive Without Punishing
Colossians 3:13 Don’t be angry with each other, but forgive each other. If you feel someone has wronged you, forgive them. Forgive others because the Lord forgave you.
There are so many different ways of loving the people around us. And us loving them is something that’s very much on God’s agenda for your life and mine. So, what do you do when a relationship’s broken?
That’s a perplexing question, isn’t it? Can I ask you to think of the most broken relationship in your life today? I know you have one – we all do. Just picture that person’s face for a moment.
What feelings does that person stir up in you? Anger, hurt, fear … a desire for recompense … for revenge even? Those are all pretty natural reactions to someone who’s hurt you, and the closer they were to begin with, the more it hurts, right?
With all my heart, I know that God wants to set you free from all those negative emotions – the fear, the anger, the unforgiveness that’ve been weighing you down. Here it is:
Colossians 3:13,14 Don’t be angry with each other, but forgive each other. If you feel someone has wronged you, forgive them. Forgive others because the Lord forgave you.
Forgiveness. That’s the key that’ll set you free. You and I, we can choose to see that person as a person – with all the frailties that are, to a greater or lesser degree, part and parcel of being human.
And when we come out of our combative box, so to speak, and see them as a human being who’s made mistakes just as we have, somehow the anger dissipates and opens us up to forgiving them.
“Why should I do that?” you may ask. Because the Lord forgave you. It cost Him His life. So …don’t be angry, forgive each other. Forgive them because the Lord forgave you.
That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.
Blessed by this devotion?
Share it with a friend!
Respond