Forgiveness.
What an awesome word. What an amazing concept.
…Especially when that act of forgiveness is directed toward
us, right? What about when it’s directed toward others from us?
It’s true that we’ve all been hurt by someone. Maybe it’s
been many times.
Have you ever hurt someone? Have you ever had to face
someone and ask for forgiveness? Without it, there would be a gap in the
relationship … a distance that couldn’t be bridged without their mercy.
It’s true that you probably have wronged someone in your
lifetime. Whether or not you’ve dealt with that is a different story.
I’ve hurt people in my life. I’ve needed their forgiveness
to deal with it and have healing for relationships.
Sometimes, though, it’s easy to think that we deserve to
clench bitterness in our hands and refuse to forgive those who have hurt us.
Their offense, in our minds, is unforgivable. To forgive them would be an
offense to our own selves.
Yeah. That’s true. It would offend our pride.
No matter how bad we’ve been hurt or sinned against, we have
no right to hold anger and judgment over those who’ve wronged us.
Why? Because nothing that anyone has ever done to us has
ever surpassed the wrongs on our account toward God Himself.
Yet HE forgives.
..... HE forgets.
..... HE pours mercy.
..... HE loves.
Our sin is the ultimate offense toward Him, for He is a perfectly
holy God.
But He looks past that, through the blood of Christ, and
calls us to walk with Him in a divine relationship.
He forgave us. Do we consider ourselves higher than God to
say that someone has wronged us to the point that they should not receive our
forgiveness?
Do they deserve it? No, they don’t. Do we deserve any
forgiveness? No, we don’t.
Does God forgive us despite how undeserving we are? Yes, He
does.
We might not forget what’s been done to us. Can we forgive,
though? Yes. God chose to forgive and made it possible through Christ’s perfect
sacrifice on our behalf. He
amazingly chooses to forget it, as well; He remembers our wrongs no more and,
instead, sees Christ’s righteousness for us.
We can choose to forgive, too.
To forgive is to give a picture of God’s grace here on
earth. Isn’t that God-glorying picture what we should live for?
