Choose To Forgive

MATTHEW 6:14-15

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.


My pastor has been teaching a series on forgiveness lately. It is one of the hardest lessons to learn for me. I could probably safely say it is for most people. Yet, it’s required. That makes it all the more difficult.

While sitting under Pastor’s teachings I found myself with an array of emotions: from discomfort to guilt, from defensiveness to regret, from anger to repentant, from surprise to “how did you know I felt that way?” No one likes to hear a sermon that pierces their very being. It is easier to sit under a feel good, pick-me-up sermon that makes you think, “Yeah, I am on the right track.” Those sermons are great too. We all need to know we are on the right path with God. We also need to grow in our walk with Christ. To do that we need to consistently rid ourselves of anything that hinders our relationship with Christ. It is those not-so-feel-good sermons that usually lead us in that direction.

Hebrews 4:12 says For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The Word of God is meant to pierce our hearts and take out what is not from God. Think about it, no surgery is painless. Even if you are knocked out by anesthesia during the procedure you will definitely feel it afterward in recovery. I wish sometimes that God would give me some anesthesia in some of my piercing moments. But what would I learn if I was asleep?

We are supposed to have the mind of Christ. He died a horrible death so that we may be forgiven of our sins, sins that were against him. Yet we find it difficult to forgive others when they sin against us.
I challenge you as I am being challenged to take that step of forgiveness. I have said often that no person or thing is worth going to hell over. If we don’t forgive then God doesn’t forgive. If God doesn’t forgive us then we can’t possibly think He will allow us into heaven. God Bless!