The “I Forgive You” series 2

Part II

Mark 11:25:- “And WHEN YE STAND PRAYING, FORGIVE, if ye have ought against any; that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses”.

Unforgiveness more often than not leads to spiritual burn out.

A spiritually burnt out person has been disappointed on all fronts, but especially by other people. All hopes of walking with God the spiritually exhausted person had, in some way involved believers. And all along the route of life, he has erected markers that name people who have failed to live up to his expectations.

When the burnout began to manifest, there were usually bitter confrontations with others who were believers. At those times, we even feel that we could have handled hurts from pagans much more easily than from our brothers and sisters in Christ.

A major step for returning to spiritual vigor and strength is to forgive…

Forgive all who have been part of the hurts of life…

Forgive those who have failed you…

Forgive those who were not there when you needed them the most.

Forgive the gossips who carried the news of your exhaustion and problems to every believer in the vicinity…

Forgive those leaders and elders who have hurt you with their words and actions…

Forgive those who you thought were spiritual giants, but you found to have feet of clay and a set of weakness like everyone else…

Do not despise the pharisee! The person who despises the pharisee has become one! Although He confronted them so often, Jesus never held any resentment against the Pharisees. And He prayed for those who hurried Him to His death.

Check out my next post on “Who is a Pharisee?” for more details

Peter speaks of Jesus in His humanity, and shows how He was able to forgive those who hurt Him so deeply. He refers to this one aspect of the sufferings of Jesus as an example that we are to follow.

“….Christ….leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revolt in return; while suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously”.

1 pet 2: 21-23 NAS

The way Jesus forgave is the way every believer can and should forgive.

Peter reminds us that when people hurled abuses at Jesus, He did not condescend to their level and return in kind. When He suffered at their hands, He did not have fantasies of their destruction and make threats of getting even.

Faith hands over judgement to the father and, in so doing, confesses that He is the only One able to judge perfectly. The act of forgiveness is the choice to acknowledge God in a situation, opening the door for Him to work both in those who inflicted the hurt and those who are now forgiving.

This reveals the true meaning of forgiveness. It is releasing a person into God’s hands, choosing not to be his judge while leaving all judgement to God. To forgive a person is not to say that he was right in what he said or did to you; it is to release him from all debt you feel he owes you, and place him in God’s hands.

To forgive is…

God forgives us, through nothing that we have done, and through no promise we might foolishly make concerning the future. All of His dealings with us arise from His spontaneous, unconditional love.

When we do not forgive a person, we are effectively jailing him! In the mind of the unforgiving person, the wrongdoer is forever locked into being the person who did wrong. Like the frame of a video that is frozen to show a football play, so the hating individual freezes the object of hate in his mind. As far as he is concerned, the person who hurt him can never change; what that person said or did is the way he is and will always be.

For everyone that hurt you remember how you hurt God and you were forgiven, it would help you to forgive easily.

It is a solemn fact that to hold unforgiveness towards another is to bring torment into one’s life.

Anger destroys, not the life of the person you’re angry with but yours. It might not happen immediately but eventually you would reap the “benefits” of anger…hatred, sickness, unrest etc

Series continues…watch out!

The “I Forgive You” Series 1

Part I

Mark 11:25:- “And WHEN YE STAND PRAYING, FORGIVE, if ye have ought against any; that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses”.

Without forgiving others, there can be no forgiveness of your own sins nor would there be answered prayers. That is why Mark 11:25 is immediately after Mark 11: 22-24, but we often read mark 11: 22-24 and rejoice in it, forgetting the immediate next verse, verse 25, “…when you stand praying before you make your request known to God – FORGIVE…”

Forgiveness is not a feeling, it is a choice.

Do you know what happens when you start holding grudges?

It is the same thing that happens in the arteries of your heart when too much fat gets in. Fat starts collecting around the edges of your artery and restricting the flow of blood. Once it starts collecting, it builds up and builds up until no blood can flow at all.

In the spiritual realm, unforgiveness builds up the same way. It starts collecting in the channel where the spirit flows, and if you’re not careful, it will clog the channel. Soon nothing is flowing at all. The devil gets you completely confused, hoodwinked and all messed up. You go completely “off the deep end”, rebelling against everything – and it all starts with unforgiveness.

Get on your knees before God, take the knife of the Holy Spirit, and cut out all that unforgiveness. When you get rid of it, the flow can start again.

Once you start trespassing (holding grudges) in one area and giving the devil one inch of ground, he will start to take you over in other areas, and he’ll push you into a corner till you’re no longer living for God.

Do not allow yourself be cut off from God’s presence by holding a grudge or giving a bad report.

Forgive and keep a good report, let whatever flows out of your mouth be good!

Never permit anything said about you to remain in your memory for too long, don’t try to amplify the mistakes of others so that everybody might notice it because they have wronged you.

FORGIVE AND LET GO!

GAL 6:1:- says it all…

“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

The Holy Spirit is a Helper. He is with you. If you choose to forgive and forget and to keep a good report, the Holy Spirit will help you. But until you CHOOSE to forgive, the Holy Spirit cannot help you even though He wants to help.

YOU alone can control what comes out of your mouth even God cannot do it for you.

It is your choice to speak faith words – loving words – and not say anything evil. You build an atmosphere with words. You can choose to talk about how badly you feel, how bad economic conditions are, or how badly someone acted toward you, bad-mouth those in authority, dwelling on their bad points, but if you dwell on these kinds of things, they will become a giant and eat you alive.

Faith works by Love.

Some people hinder their own prayers by reminding God of their past. He’s forgiven you and moved past your wrong doing – so don’t be reminding Him of it like He’s some senile old man.

You see, true forgiveness is acting like it never happened. That’s true love, never even thinking about it.

To be strong in faith, you’ve got to strong in love and forgiveness.

Without forgiveness it is impossible to make your faith work.

One of the major problems a burnt-out person has is unforgiveness. Usually, it is rapidly growing into deep-seated resentment and bitterness.

In my next series I will expound more on who a spiritually burnt-out person is…but stay tuned and watch out for the Part II of The “I Forgive You” series… send in your comments and let’s rub minds…