Forgiveness

Forgiveness has been on my mind this past week. 

It’s easy to mentally agree with a concept but then another thing entirely to actually put it into practice - trust me. 

But this past week God has given me an opportunity to practice forgiveness. 

Now, before you start mentally analyzing my personal life, wondering who in the world I need to forgive, I will stop you right there. This was actually a business transaction that involved only non-Christians. (The situation is not yet completely resolved but I feel like God is teaching me perseverance as well so I will continue on trusting in Him and obeying what He teaches me in His Word.) 

As I was mulling over the situation I found myself in, I quickly realized that although the circumstances were completely out of my control, my response to it wasn’t - and that’s what mattered. And if in our responses we strive to reflect our Savior - that makes all the difference. Then a bad thing can even turn into a good thing. 

What does the Bible teach us about forgiveness? 

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. 

Matthew 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

We don’t forgive other people who sin against us because on our own we are such good, wonderful, gracious, forgiving people - because we're not. We don’t forgive because the people who sin against us are so repentant or so deserving of our forgiveness. 

We forgive because HE first forgave us. 

We forgive because in Christ, God has forgiven us for every bad thought, word and action that we have ever done in our entire lives. 

Think about that for a minute. 

To have every bad thing you have ever done or ever will do completely forgiven. 

Isn’t that just incredible! 

Psalm 103:12 says: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. 

You know that if our sins were written on a list, that list would be miles long. And much to our shame we don’t even remember a tiny fraction of them. Psalm 130:3 says: If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? and in 1 John 1:10 it says: If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 

Whatever people have done to us cannot compare to our lifetime of sin against God. 

Yet, because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross on our behalf He forgave us and so we are called to forgive. 

And then as we share His forgiving love with others something beautiful happens. 

We reflect Him. 

And direct other to Him. 

And that is a beautiful thing.