This past few weeks, God has been penetrating my heart in a deeper way than ever before with the message of what true forgiveness means. A hurtful situation in my life has brought this issue to the surface in the last few weeks.
As a woman, it very easy to be quick-tempered and to let my feelings and emotions rule, rather than let the Spirit of God work within me. I'm sure many of you can relate. When someone hurts us, our fleshly side wants to cling to that hurt, to meditate upon it, and to hold that person in contention for the rest of his or her life. When someone offends us, we have the tendency to pout, sulk, act moody and to say critical and cutting things about them to others. For some reason, our flesh convinces us that being bitter toward those who hurt us is our God-given right. But the opposite is true. Christ spoke in no uncertain terms about the necessity of forgiving (Matthew 18:21-35). As Christ says, we have been forgiven so much by our Lord, when we were so utterly undeserving of His pardon. What right do we have to then turn and refuse to forgive those who hurt us?
As I surrendered my hurt and my anger to the Lord, the most incredible thing happened..my heart was filled with love and peace for the person that has hurt me and I was reminded once again that forgiveness is not primarily a matter of feeling, but a matter of choice; a decision to obey God's word. All we have to do is simply say, “Lord, I choose to let this go; to give this offense to You instead of carrying it!” God will do the rest and supply the willingness, the love, and the compassion we need to live it out.
Our hurt may be strong, but praise God that His love is far stronger!
