We Need to Forgive
“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
It is not an option. It is a requirement that we forgive each other for us to be forgiven as well.
You know, a friend of mine, Syd Hartley, phoned me up a few years ago and he said: “Angus, I just want to tell you that I like you.”
I said, “Well thank you very much Syd - I love you.”
He said, “No, I have to love you but I don’t have to like you.”
We really do need to forgive. Why you might ask... Because Jesus says we must love one another. Now, remember, the Lord had a very difficult task. He had to wash the feet of the very man, Judas Iscariot, who was going to go out and betray Him for 30 pieces of silver. You say, “I could never do that!” Well, it is not optional - We have to! We have to forgive otherwise Jesus says that His father will not forgive us of our trespasses.
Unforgiveness poisons us, it is like cancer. It is like rust that destroys a motor car, it eventually consumes us if we do not deal with it. The Lord knows that and it is actually for our sake that we must lay it down at the Cross and let the Lord Jesus Christ deal with it. Maybe today you have got a real issue with an unfaithful husband, a delinquent child, a dishonest business partner or maybe a pastor or a minister who has failed you. Now you need to forgive them so that you can move on with your life. You will find it feels like laying down a 50kg bag of cement that you have been carrying around on your back. Once you do that you will find real peace and real freedom. Confess it, deal with it and leave it.
Do you remember that old saint, Corrie Ten Boom - That Dutch lady who was put into a concentration camp in the Second World War for hiding Jews in her father’s jewellery shop in Holland? Her dad and her sister both died in those concentration camps. After the war, she was preaching in a church and at the end of the service, she stood at the doorway and was shaking hands with the people as they were coming out of the church. A man walked out and she looked at him in the face and realized that he was a former guard at the concentration camp, and she just didn’t want to shake his hand. The Holy Spirit laid upon her: “You have to forgive him.” And she genuinely forgave him by shaking his hand.
God’s love in your heart is enough to forgive the person who has hurt you. Do it today.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.