1. Forgive your enemies
2. Forgive your brothers and sisters in the Lord.
3. Forgive yourself
4. Forgive God
We are the ones who suffer the most when we choose not to forgive. The weight of not forgiving is enormous and keeps us from knowing the freedom that God has for us. In the last couple months, I have been working so hard to remember that if the person is worth Christ’s forgiveness, how can they possibly not be worthy of mine? To me, it is so humbling to come back to that question whenever I am angry at someone. Am I so high and mighty that I could possibly think that my forgiveness should be harder to come by than His?
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievance you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13
Forgiving Enemies
I have realized that when trying to forgive someone whose heart I do not understand and whom I strongly disagree with, it is best for me to pray for that person. When I pray for them, my heart softens and I am humbled by God’s grace and see myself in a new light, just as guilty of failure and sin. It is not our job to judge the other person in their sin, but to repent for our own wrong-doings.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37
Excellent post. My parents had a nasty divorce 11 years ago and I carried unforgiveness around for my mom and her new husband for 9 of those years. I was filled with bitterness and unhappiness. I felt like if I forgave them then the circumstances that led up to the divorce were okay. I realized that I'm not the judge, God is. Also, if they had asked for forgiveness, He already forgave them. I was the only one struggling with it! After 9 long years, I finally repented and forgave them. It was such a freeing thing.
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