Forgiveness is not an option on the buffet table of the Christian walk. Heaven is for those who receive forgiveness vertically from heaven and give it horizontally on earth.
Forgiveness requires sacrifice. To get to it from Heaven required the Lamb to lay down his life and for us to give it horizontally will require the sacrifice laying down of our hurt and desire for retribution
Genuine forgiveness requires this: devastating violating will always want injustice and hurt satisfied.
Forgiveness like this is not easy. It's not for sissy's or the faint hearted.
Like faith it needs to be constantly strengthened and build up, it like faith is tested and its then a focus of fight
Many times savage hurts and grievous wounds can creep back in unawares to seek a root of bitterness to grow troubling you and defiling many.
We must be on guard to let our faith not weaken to unbelief and our forgiveness to weaken to bitterness
Sometimes the initial decision to forgive can require many back up decisions to fortify it
Sometimes it will need the grace of God to undergird it as you will struggle in your own ability.
Many times it's simply unfair to forgive but because He has us and our sin and requires us to, we must.
Sadly many good and godly because of their unforgiveness to a violation have stopped growing, opened to door to darkness and potentially closed the door to heaven.
Yet the very people who violated them can go on and lead powerful live's because they got vertical and have given horizontal forgiveness
It's a dicy place to be in: calling someone unclean and worthy of judgement when God has declared them clean and pardoned because they have sought Him for it
To forgive doesn't mean you have to be someone's best friend or even like them it means you pardon them, let go of the violation. Sometime forgiveness will open a door for an even closer friendship than before. Sometime it won't and its impossible to even be on good terms because of the nature of the situation and the person. But it's important to pardon
Pardon doesn't always means there will not be consequences. You might pardon some one but have to go thru court or divorce etc
But the key thing is to move on obey and honour God and his precepts. I know people who hang on to stuff for years, I'm so sorry it happened to you but your lack of forgiveness is now the thing that is killing you, others who seek out stuff to then use trip others. Stuff that God has pardoned and every one has moved on from
Friday, 1 May 2015
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