The Gift Of Forgiveness

Earlier this year at one of my church ladies’ meetings I gave a devotional about FORGIVENESS.  For at least a year I planned for it. Books were read, research was made, questions were asked, thoughts were not few and prayers were many. When the day came for me to present my material, I felt…unprepared.

Why was that? Because it is a vast and complicated…but glorious subject! At first glance, it seemed that it would be easy to gather my basic thoughts and prepare a simple outline. After all, it is a basic and daily need and  occurrence in our lives. Or should be. We are human beings, forgiveness is for human beings…how much easier could it get? Oh, but that’s the very reason forgiveness is also difficult: we are human. Humans rebel against doing what is right. And especially what is right AND difficult! As Brazilians would say…”Não é mesmo?” (rough translation: Isn’t that right?)
Having said all that, I would like to present to you some of the simple and basic facts that I gathered for my devotional regarding forgiveness, things that we need to know and remember...

1.  God forgave us. (Ephesians 1:7-8)       If we are one of His children, we have repented of our sins, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then freely and abundantly received God’s forgiveness for us. It was, after all, against Him that we have sinned, so it is from Him that we need forgiveness. He gave, we believed and received and now we have eternal life because of it. What mercy (not giving us what we deserve)! What grace (giving us what we don’t deserve)! What love (the gift that always gives)!

Forgiveness encompasses all of those and God's forgiveness is the pattern for human forgiveness.

2.  Forgiveness is a command. (Luke 1&:3-4)  We are disobeying the Lord if we refuse to forgive.  It is as simple as that. Yeah right…you might be saying. You don’t know what someone did to me. No I don’t, but God does. And He still says “forgive”. How can we get around a clear command?!

3. Forgiveness is a two-way street.  (Colossians 3:13) There is often  the need to forgive AND to be forgiven. Each side must do their part. We’re in this together.
                                                                                But what if the other person does not forgive or ask for forgiveness? No worries. You do your part and leave the rest to the Lord. The important thing is that we obey, remember? I am not saying that it is easy, nor is it always enjoyable. But rewarding it is!

4. Lack of forgiveness will harm you.  (Psalm 32:1-5) It is a known and proven fact that when we harbor bitterness, anger, unforgiveness and other negative feelings and thoughts in our heart we do literal, physical damage to ourselves. I am sure that this damage extends to every other area of our lives, too.

Really, why do we refuse to forgive? What good does it do? We are not harming the other person as much as our own selves. It is not worth it!

5.  Spiritually mature people take the first step. (Galatians 6:1)

This verse isn't specifically referring to forgiveness, but the principle is there: the spiritual person will do what's right, will take the initiative to do what needs to be done.

Even though he may not be the one who is to blame for the wrong that was done, in order for reconciliation to be made and for the relationship to be restored, he should be the one to set the wheels in motion. Someone has to do this, it only makes sense that the mature one should be that someone.

6. Forgiveness has no limits.(Luke 17:3-4)
As far as I can tell by this verse, there is no limit to how often we should forgive someone when they ask for forgiveness. It doesn't make sense to us, I know. But remember that love is involved in this. True love has no limits to how often, how far, how deep it can go.  Neither does true forgiveness.

7. Forgiveness is a gift. (Romans 6:23) 

As God's gift of forgiveness to us, so should ours be to others...
It is free for the person to whom it is offered.
It has no strings attached.
It is unconditional.
It is not given back to the giver.
It is given in love.
It costs something for the giver. (Remember what it cost God to give us forgiveness.)



I recently heard a definition of sacrifice which I love and which seems to fit here: "To sacrifice means to give up something we love for something we love more." 

What might be that something we love that we have to give up? Perhaps our pride, our rights or our comfortable pity party. But we love much more the happiness of the other person, the relationship that was lost, or the peace and joy of obeying the Lord. Are we willing to sacrifice that loved thing so that we can have the thing we love even more? It doesn't even sound like it would be a difficult decision, does it?!
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Well, this is certainly not a complete list of  things to note about forgiveness. But they were some of the ones that impressed me the most as I did my research.

We all are humans, we all need to give and receive forgiveness. Let us all do our part to do what is right, to obey the Lord, to live in peace with our fellow human beings (Romans 12:18). Part of that peace is the wonderful gift of forgiveness!

(First 9 photos are from 2012)