To forgive or not forgive....I remember when Phil and Amanda were in 8th grade they did a paper on "forgiveness", it was based on the book" the sunflower" by Simon Wisenthal. Basically, when he was a boy he was in a concentration camp, and his job was to work in the hospital ward. It has been a long time since I have read this book, but as i recall, he has to clean up the mess on the floor, blood,ect. One day he was talking to one of Hitler's soldiers. He was on his death bed, he was talking to simon about how he had killed many innocent jews, and now at the time in his life he realize this was wrong, and asked Simon to forgive him for all the sins he committed against all the jews. So Simon had to forgive this man for the awful acts of injustice he has committed, or to choose to continue to not forgive.
So what the students had to do was to be simon, and decide if placed in that position would they forgive or not to forgive this man for all the jewish people!
Forgiveness has been on my mind alot....I was reading in my daily bread a few days ago and it was about forgiveness. It was the chain of unforgiveness...
Basically it was about the cycle that can come when we choose not to forgive someone, that choice can become a cycle that moves from event to event.
So it was saying that when we choose to forgive," it halts the cycle of blame and pain. Breaking the chain of ungrace. Without it we remain bound to the people we can't forgive, held in a vice grip of pain!"
Secondly, " forgiveness loosens the stranglehold of guilt in the perpertrator. It allows the possibility of transformation in the guilty party, and third, forgiveness creates a remarkable linkage, placing the forgiver on the same side as the party who did the wrong."
So in Matthew 6:14-15 it tells us that when we forgive those who sin against us, our God will forgive us or sins, but if we choose not to forgive others, then God will NOT forgive us!
That is pretty plain and simple!
But also one of the greatest commandments God gave to us in Galatians 5:14!
" The entire law is summed up in a single commandment: love your neighbor as yourself!"
So basically, if we don't love God and Don't love others, we can't forgive, it really is all about Love, God doesn't say, "Love if you feel like it that day, or sometimes."
In 1Peter 4:8, it tells us" Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins."
So when you link Loving one another and forgiveness.... it is a perfect match!
Forgiveness is somethings Christians are to do, it is a command, but when people that have not made the committment of following christ need to forgive, they can place all kinds of other stipulations or conditions to their forgiveness. some forgive on moral standards, some think it is just the "right" thing to do, some feel they will forgive but not today, but maybe someday they will forget. Some choose to hold tight to the injustice and will never forgive. But when we choose to hold onto the "never forgive or hold on it it period" it can become like a festering wound. At first it is just a small cut, but if ignored and as time goes on, it doesn't heal and germs continue to infect it, your thoughts change and the pain deepens and the wound gets bigger and and it continues to get bigger and you loose sight of what it was originally. When we choose not to fix the things that cause us to have wounds of unforgiveness, we are choosing to have a oozing open infected wound, that other germs or conditions can enter in and cause the wound to get worse!
I am beginning to ramble, but what is in my thoughts right now, is whether we are a christian or not, we must choose to forgive. If we don't we open our self up to wounds that will get bigger and maybe won't ever heal. But if we choose to forgive, we have the opportunity to have immediately healing and the pain begins to go away and you forget what the deal was that caused you pain in the first place.
So as you read this.... and I hope you are not confused, but God Commands us to love him and love others, and to forgive others so God will forgive us! That is plain and simple!
So I close with a thought from my Daily Bread"
"He who cannot forgive others burns the bridge over which he himself must pass." ~herbert
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