““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
I will never forgive you!
If we’re honest with ourselves, at one time or another, or even many times, in our lives, we’ve probably either said or at the very least felt these words in our heart concerning someone who has hurt us, let us down, disappointed us, betrayed us, rejected us, neglected us, abandoned us, wounded us, embarrassed us, turned us away or down, abused us, violated us, stolen from us, lied to us, cheated on us, etc. Some of us, you included, may even be experiencing this right now. Have you ever, or even now, felt so upset about someone else’s actions, or lack of actions, toward you, that you are 100% convinced, and even committed, to absolutely never ever forgive that person? Do you believe you can justify your refusal to forgive? That you have sufficient reason to refuse to forgive? I have a three-fold message for you.
- If there has ever been one person in the universe with the perfect justification to refuse to forgive, it’s God. He is perfectly holy and righteous, we ALL have sinned against Him, NONE of us can ever measure up to Him, ALL our “righteousness” is filth in His eyes, and NONE of us deserves His forgiveness which means we ALL deserve the curse of death, hell, and the lake of fire forever because we as sinners can’t be in the presence of His holiness now or forever in heaven. But God, in His awesomeness, sent Christ to the cross to die in our place and take our sin punishment on Himself so if we repent and believe this Gospel message and give our lives to Christ, God will FORGIVE US and give us everlasting life. WHO ARE WE THEN TO REFUSE TO FORGIVE OUR FELLOW HUMANS FOR THEIR SINS AGAINST US WHEN GOD FORGIVES US?
- If anyone has ever told you refusing to forgive is like keeping ourselves in prison while the person who offended us goes free and that we should therefore forgive the person so we can be happy and free, this is NOT the reason to forgive. Forgiveness is NOT about us. It’s about God and others. Sure we are blessed when we forgive others, but our motive should not be self; our motive should be love for Christ and others!
- Forgiveness is A COMMAND from God, forgiveness is an ACT OF OBEDIENCE, and we MUST FORGIVE in order TO BE FORGIVEN.
God will enable us to do what He commands us to do; I believe when we make the decision to forgive, He will by His Spirit give us His love and His strength to forgive.
It’s time to forgive. Now.