John 14:6

...Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Forgiveness?

Matthew 6:14-15
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

2 Corinthians 2:3-11
And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe. This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Ephesians 4:25-32
Therefore, putting away lying, “ Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.


I remember sitting on the couch in my living room about 4 years ago. It was a Sunday night, and I was reading my Bible-in Matthew chapter 6. I read those verses about forgiveness, and The Holy Spirit prompted me to stop and pray. I had some really bad things going on at work, and I had been holding grudges against several of my co-workers for what I thought were premeditated attacks against me. The Lord prompted me to stop, and pray for those people, and to forgive them for their offenses against me. These people weren't born-again, nor did they even realize what they were doing.

One-by-one, I began to pray for each of these individuals. The co-worker who had openly stabbed me in the back, the manager who blamed me for something that I didn't do, the Director who bad-mouthed me becuase I didn't think his idea was a good one-the list went on. Then a funny thing happened. As I neared the end of my "list" of people to forgive, I began to slow down. I planned to stop praying, and that would be the end of it.

Well, let me tell you-God had other plans! God spoke to me directly, and told me to forgive people who had wronged me during my life. I thought, that this would be over very quickly, but The Holy Spirit kept impressing on my heart-"ALL OF THEM-GO ALL THE WAY BACK"! God wanted me to go as far back as I could remember and forgive everyone who had ever done anything bad to me.

Well, this seemed like it was going to be interesting. I prayed for clarity, and to bring these things to rememberance. In a few minutes, I was taking a stroll down memory lane. I prayed for Paul, the neighborhood bully who used to beat me up and who stole my baseball cards, I prayed for some relatives, for my parents and family. I prayed for people in my teenage years who had gossiped about me, and who had made me feel inferior because I didn't like to do the same things that they did. I prayed for some of the bosses I had in various jobs. I prayed for some of the co-workers at these jobs who had committed "questionable" acts, and who had "stabbed me in the back". This kept going on, and on, and on. The next thing I know, I'm finishing my prayers (..."In Jesus' Name), and I looked at the clock. over 3 hours had passed! It seemed like 10 minutes!!! I actually felt lighter, and I felt un-burdened!

I am sure that God had to take me down this path because some of my un-forgiveness was really becoming an issue. I was losing sleep over certain situations, and I was really finding it hard to let certain things go. God took care of that.

Matthew 11:29-30 states that : "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." It states that if you cannot bear your burdens, then Jesus can take those from you!!!

In the beginning of this post, I quoted 3 very important scriptures that have to do with forgiveness. In a nutshell, they state that as Christ forgave you, you need to forgive your enemies. Think about that one-Jesus forgave your sins by offering Himself as a living sacrifice on the cross. If He did that, surely you can forgive someone else who sins against you!!!

It also states that by NOT forgiving a brother or sister who sinned against you, you let Satan gain a foothold in your life. The enemy wants you to be eaten alive by unforgiveness. He wants you to hold grudges against people and to allow strife into your relationships. He wants you to lose sleep, and to continually be bitter. If the enemy wins, then you will be walking in sin!!!

Brothers & Sisters-I know that you may harbor unforgiveness in your lives. Everyone does. I don't know the circumstances, but that is irrelevant at this point. God's Word states that you need to forgive those who sin against you. It doesn't matter what they did. It doesn't matter under what circumstances. It doesn't matter how many times. If God says to do it-we ALL need to do it!!!! Let's not let Satan gain a foothold in our lives! Let's not let the enemy have his way with us!

Here's something I would like to ask you to do. Think of all the people that have ever sinned against you, that have ever done wrong against you or your family. Get into your prayer closet, and ask Jesus for the grace & mercy for you to be able to do this. Think about all these people, and forgive them-one by one. Release them from the bondage of unforgiveness that you held against them. Pray that if you see these individuals again, that you would be granted the grace to forgive them in person. You will find that God may take you down a road that you did not think you were going. You may need to cast all your burdens on the great Burden-Bearer, Jesus!

Your prayer may go something like this: Jesus, I thank You that you are the bearer of my burdens. I thank You that I was forgiven for my sins by Your atoning death on the cross. I am asking for the grace and mercy to forgive people who have wronged me. Lord, I have unforgiveness in my heart against (person's name here). I forgive him/her. I release him/her from their offense against me (or my family), and I give it over to the Lord, Jesus Christ. Lord-please remove the burden of unforgiveness in this situation from me. Forgive me, Lord-In Jesus' Name. Repeat as many times as necessary.

I am sharing this because I feel that somebody out there in the body is suffering from unforgiveness. The Bible is explicit in how we are to behave in this circumstance. Read the 3 scripuurs at the beginning of this blog. Lay down your flesh. Lay down your pride, and lay down your burden. Trust me, it feels awesome!

Can somebody PLEASE shout AMEN???

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

AMEN!!! The task of forgiving is always a challenging one, thanks for the reminder from the scripture that it is a command and not a suggestion. It pleases God and rewards us. To unburden ourselves, what a blessing!

Neil

deb said...

Oh Ira, your sermon on forgiveness had me remembering.....I forgive you for knocking me down on your front lawn when you were teaching the kids how to ride their bikes....lol.... no really that was a good word in due season....preach on, Ira preach on......deb <*)))><