““For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Mt. 6:14-15……..
“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Eph. 4:31-32……..
“I’ve forgiven,” people have told me from time to time in my streets ministry work.
“I’m not angry,” people have also told me.
“I forgave that person a long time ago,” I have told people.
“I’m not angry at him,” I have said.
The truth is we can tell the whole world we’ve forgiven someone, and we can tell the whole world we’re not angry, but the Lord God almighty knows our hearts. And sometimes though we are convinced we have forgiven someone, and are convinced we’re not angry at someone, we have not forgiven and we are angry. And God is abundantly clear about forgiveness and anger. He commands us to forgive, and He commands us to put away our anger.
Should we not then search our hearts, in the light of the Spirit of God, and when we see we have not in fact forgiven, and that in fact we are angry, make the decision to obey God and to FORGIVE and to purge ourselves of the anger? Yes! In obedience to the Lord, yes!
If this message is hitting home as you read it, perhaps you have someone, or some people, you need to forgive whom you thought you’d already forgiven, and perhaps you have anger in your heart you were convinced you don’t have and need to purge yourself of it. In obedience to the Lord, yes!