God's Forgiveness
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ forgave you” Eph 4:32
“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” Colossians 3:13
There is a great story in the Bible about the prodigal son. It is a great story about a Father and forgiveness. The son is given his inheritance and spends all of it and is down and out. He thinks because of his mistakes, his Father will be upset with him. He finally goes back home and expects to be treated the way the he has acted. To his surprise, his Father is happy to see him, and lavishes his love and affection on him. This is a great example of God’s love for us. Many time throughout our lives we sin and instead of God giving us what we deserve, he forgives us and pours his love on us.
One of the most important things that I have learnt while I have been in seasons of healing, is that I need to forgive. I have had times where forgiving someone is easy and I have had times when forgiving others is really hard. Sometimes I have had to forgive them over and over until the pain is gone. I have found that when I continue to forgive someone, there is a healing that starts to take place, and the pain starts to subside, and restoration comes and then wholeness.
I was praying the other day and working through forgiving someone, and God showed me that he has forgiven me many times, and because of his forgiveness for me, he gives me the grace to forgive others.
Sometimes we have to forgive people when they aren’t sorry for what they have done or they have no idea the pain that they have caused.
The habit of forgiving others and ourselves is a very important habit to build, as it will help us keep a short list of people who have hurt us.
I talked to a friend the other day and he told me about a hurtful experience when he was 14 years old, and he was talking like it happened yesterday. He was still reliving the pain and hurt he experienced in that moment.
When we hold onto past hurts, disappointments, rejection, pain and unforgiveness, we can’t fully be present and engaged in our present.
The last 5 years I have been on a journey of healing and forgiveness. It has taken time and I have allowed God to show me who I need to forgive. It has been something that has changed my life, as I was able to let go of so many things from the past, and start to live in the present and plan for the future.
I discovered that I needed to start of habit of forgiving people as quickly as possible, and make it a daily habit to forgive others and myself, so that I didn’t let things build up over time. This habit of forgiving others on a daily basis has changed my life.
The more you forgive, the easier it becomes.
Throughout our lives, we are going to have opportunities to forgive. If we want to be people who are healing, whole and free, forgiving others is going to be apart of our daily lives.
In our own strength, it is hard to forgive someone who has hurt us. We have a Heavenly Father who loves us and forgives us, so it gives us the grace to love and forgive each other.
When we look at how God gave his only son, to die on the cross, so we could be forgiven of our sins, and have everlasting life, we can see his example.
I don’t know where you are today on your journey of forgiveness. Maybe your friend betrayed you, a spouse walked out of a relationship, maybe your family hurt or rejected you, maybe a boss treated you unfairly. Wherever you find yourself on your journey of healing, today is the best day to start forgiving. Is it easy? NO. it is worth it? YES.
The important thing to remember is that forgiveness and healing takes time. Just like when you take a bandaid off a wound, it takes time to heal and form a scab to completely heal, so does the things in our lives.
Just remember that our Heavenly Father has forgive us, and he gives us the grace to forgive others.
Forgiveness leads to healing, and healing leads to restoration and wholeness.
Who do you need to forgive today?