The Linchpin To Healing Is Forgiveness
Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, you also must do. Colossians 3:13
Forgiveness does not validate wrongdoing.
"Forgiveness is not the misguided act of condoning irresponsible, hurtful behavior. Nor is it a superficial turning of the other cheek that leaves us feeling victimized and martyred. Rather it is the finishing of old business that allows us to experience the present, free of contamination from the past." Joan Borysenko
Don’t minimize or justify others’ wrong actions against you.
Unless you face the fullness of the offense, you cannot experience the fullness of the freedom that comes to you when you forgive them.
Forgiveness is hard in traumatic or ongoing abuse cases but is possible with God.
Minimizing an offense is like whitewashing forgiveness; it just looks like forgiveness, but it disappears when the rains of conflict arise again.
Minimizing applies to your own hidden or known sins. You cannot excuse sin; only forgive it.
You must fully confess the wrongdoing to experience God's complete healing through forgiveness.
Minimizing it doesn't allow the chains to be broken, only lengthened.
Hard to do?
It is impossible on your own; you need God's power.
The same is true of forgiving others.
Speak the truth about the offense to you.
You can't short-circuit forgiveness.
You can't start at the end without examining the truth and forgiving what happened. The same goes for accepting forgiveness.
You don’t have to wait until the person shows they’ve repented.
Well, to put it bluntly, Jesus didn’t.
He forgave his enemies on the cross when they were killing him.
Forgiveness isn’t a feeling.
First and foremost, it is a spiritual act.
Jesus commands us to forgive. It is an act of faith, not feeling.
Anything Jesus commands, He works; anything He asks, He does
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The longer we carry a grudge, the more force it exerts on our lives.
As you look at your life, unforgiveness is probably keeping you from realizing the promise of an abundantly healthy life.
That is either the accepting of forgiveness or the giving of forgiveness.
May today you receive God’s forgiveness and immediately give it away!
Lord, make us willing to forgive by showing us Your glory and the beauty of Your love for us. As You have done unto us, may we gladly do unto others that You love and gave Your life for. Amen