Because I'm Forgiven...

Sometimes it's not so easy to  forgive.  I can't always do it on my own.  I get caught up in being "right" and deserving to be treated with respect.  That's doesn't always happen.  But Christ gives me the ability to stop clinging to my own sense of what's right.  He helps me let go of perceived offenses.  He puts His Light in me so that I can love and forgive others, just as He has loves and forgives me.

http://youtu.be/PWeb79W8EqQ - You Put the Light in Me  - Brandon Heath

What seems too difficult for us is a sure sign that it belongs to God.
                                                                 - Marie DePree

Forgiving others is one of the most effective ways to open the doors to God's blessings. It's not always easy to do. Many times, unforgiveness comes because I'm focused on myself. My unforgiveness centers around my sense of what I deserve. Someone doesn't treat me the way I think he should. So I get angry, then I resent that person and have bitterness towards him. The craziest thing about unforgiveness is that the person who has made me so angry usually doesn't even know it. My unforgiveness either doesn't affect my "enemy" at all, he's completely clueless, or my unforgiveness gives my enemy power over me. That's totally not what I want. The last person I want to have power over me is someone who has hurt me.

Sometimes, unforgiveness comes when a terrible injustice has been done to someone we love. I can forgive someone who hurts me, but boy, let them hurt my children, hell has no fury like a mother who is protecting her babies. But even in those situations, God still calls us to forgive.

Forgiveness isn't about giving your enemy a "free pass" for what he's done. It's about giving yourself freedom from the burden of anger and bitterness. When we hold anger and resentment and bitterness in our hearts, they become huge footholds for the real Enemy. Those destructive thoughts grow and grow and eventually will crowd out all the good things that God wants us to think on.

Jesus gave us the ultimate example. "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing." Forgive. Leave justice to God. My enemy will have to answer for things he did against me. And, I will answer for my unwillingness to forgive. My job is to forgive and move on. When I forgive others, God blesses me with a peace that's beyond my understanding, but best of all, when I forgive, God is glorified in my life.

Do you ever feel God isn't answering your prayers? A heart full of unforgiveness can hinder your prayers. Confess your sins and ask God to renew your spirit, and give you a heart full of love and mercy.

Remember Peter's words:

1 Peter 2:22-24
He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.
He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God, ho always judges fairly.
He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin
and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

http://youtu.be/XyD1FSC3d08 - Blessed Redeemer - Casting Crowns

Ephesians 4:23-27
Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. 25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. 26And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.”[a] Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.


Holy Father, You are so merciful to me. I fail every day, yet Your mercies for me are new every morning. I am so thankful that You have removed my sins from me as far as east is to west. You look at me, and You don't see all my sins and shortcomings, You see the Righteousness of Jesus. His precious blood covers me.


Who am I, Lord? I accept Your forgiveness, but then I fail to forgive others? Why can't I forgive and forget, Lord? Please help me forgive the person who injured me. I know I cannot do this on my own, only in Your Strength, Your Grace and Your Love. Fill my heart with Your mercy so that I can be merciful. Father, You've forgiven me so much. Without Your mercy, I couldn't dare approach Your Throne. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus, for covering me with Your Righteous. Please purify my heart of any bitterness, anger, resentment, no matter how justified I may feel. You forgave me. Help me to forgive others. Now, please give me the means to forget this pain. I don't want to keep bringing it up and picking at the wound. Help me, Lord, as weak as I am, to forgive the offender and forget the pain. I ask these things in the Name of Jesus Christ, my Redeemer. Amen.

I heard Paul Yonggi Cho speak a few years back. Yonggi Cho is pastor of the largest church in the world. Several years ago, as his ministry was becoming international, he told God, “I will go anywhere to preach the gospel—except Japan.” He hated the Japanese with gut-deep loathing because of what Japanese troops had done to the Korean people and to members of Yonggi Cho’s own family during WWII. The Japanese were his Ninevites.


Through a combination of a prolonged inner struggle, several direct challenges from others, and finally an urgent and starkly worded invitation, Cho felt called by God to preach in Japan. He went, but he went with bitterness. The first speaking engagement was to a pastor’s conference—1,000 Japanese pastors. Cho stood up to speak, and what came out of his mouth was this: “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.” And then he broke and wept. He was both brimming and desolate with hatred.


At first one, then two, then all 1,000 pastors stood up. One by one they walked up to Yonggi Cho, knelt at his feet and asked forgiveness for what they and their people had done to him and his people. As this went on, God changed Yonggi Cho. The Lord put a single message in his heart and mouth: “I love you. I love you. I love you.”


Sometimes God calls us to do what we least want to do in order to reveal our heart—to reveal what’s really in our heart. How powerful is the blood of Christ? Can it heal hatred between Koreans and Japanese? Can it make a Jew love a Ninevite? Can it make you reconciled to…well, you know who?


from  Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe (Multnomah, 2001)


Ephesians 4:32
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.


Mark 11:25
But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.

Matthew 18:21-35
21Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”


22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!


23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.


26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.


28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.


29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.


31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.


35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”



http://youtu.be/Pt7OZyBj5Ik - Who Am I - Casting Crowns