Time to Forgive

Time to Forgive

Matthew 6:14-15

"For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses." (Amplified Bible)

Forgiving someone is not based on if the receiver asked for it or if whether we think that the individual deserves to be forgiven. But it does involve you letting them go and giving up anger and resentment towards that person.

To do this can be extremely challenging to truthfully do in general and even more so when the individual appears to have no remorse and, therefore, no willingness to change. They also may not even remember what was done for whatever reason, or they may not believe that they had done anything wrong, to begin with. There is also an instance where a person has died.

The truth of forgiveness is wholly founded in love. Not love as we tend to think about, which is generally based on emotions and our limited concept of humanity. But as revealed by an infinite transcending God, who has given us a glimpse of it in the person of Jesus the Christ and His willingness to choose to lay down his life to pay a debt that He did not owe.

Another concept that makes it hard to forgive is that we see the offender as being different from ourselves. We do not understand at that moment or, in some cases, over time— that the person forgiving and the person being forgiven are both in need of grace and mercy. Grace allows for growth and development, and mercy holds back condemning judgment.

The other thing that we do not consider is the depth of the consequences of not forgiving—the tormenting of the mind and soul of the one withholding the forgiveness. Even if we don't see it or want to acknowledge it, the tormenting still occurs. It affects how we live out our lives and interact with other individuals that cross our path as we live out this life—treating them like the person that we have not forgiven.

Also, in our minds, we hold hostage or incarcerate the individual, never allowing them the freedom to grow and thereby never even receiving or accepting the newness that person has developed. We do this because we only see them through tormented, painful eyes of unforgiveness.

And here is the most significant and most dangerous loss of it all. When we do not forgive, we place ourselves in the position not to be forgiven by YHWH for the acts that we commit, thereby increasing the debt that we will owe to Him… In making this last statement, I have to clarify something. When I talk about this debt, I am referring to the things that we do unknowingly, even though YHWH does end up revealing it to us in some way. Add to this the deliberate choices that we make, with full knowledge that what we are about to do is wrong according to what YHWH has already shown us according to his commands.

That debt is separate from the sin debt that was caused created by Adam's willful disobedience that affected all humankind. That debt was paid in full by Jesus the Christ, and once someone truthfully accepts that salvation, it is not taken back by YHWH. The "debts" that we are still to ask for forgiveness for are the ones that we commit after salvation.

Understanding this helps us to know when Jesus says in Matthew 18:35, "So also My heavenly Father will deal with every one of you if you do not freely forgive your brother from your heart his offenses." And also, in Matthew 6:14,15, For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses."

I encourage you today to prayerfully study and ingest what you have read. Then decide to obey YHWH from a heart of love to free those that you have imprisoned through unforgiveness, requiring them to pay an impossible debt that they can never pay that you both may be to live fully the life that you are Shaped2Live!