True Forgiveness

Good morning fellow readers,

This post to me is something really important because it's something we all struggle with; forgiveness. Most people say that forgiveness is just apologizing for a wrong and it's all good from then on. That is how most people view it, including me for so long. But forgiveness... true forgiveness is to understand that as Christians we are all sinners and that we are no better or worse than each other. Unforgiveness binds us and puts a wall up between not only us and the person who hurt us, but also between us and God. Unforgiveness occurs when we turn our eyes away from God and turn them on ourselves.

For the last few weeks I have been struggling with a lot in my personal life. I have struggled with living in a world of so much sin and being surrounded by so much stuff that bothers me. I am bothered by people in my life that hurt me and don't understand me. I am bothered by the lack of kindness I see in those I care about, and how people go around hurting each other. I am bothered by a lot of things people have done to hurt me and how saying "sorry" should heal everything and life should go back to normal.

As humans, we want to hold it against them or get revenge... It's unfair. We hate being vulnerable and hurt.

I have been going through a low point in my life where I have been holding in those feelings and holding grudges and not being happy. I have held others to standards in which I should know they are going to fail anyways because no one is perfect; we are all sinners. I had to be reminded that as sinners, our hearts are not perfect and that we don't always do the right thing and love each other. We don't always treat each other with the right amount of respect. As we do that to each other, we also do that to God.

Jesus Christ is the one person who understands this and even more than we humans do. He forgave those who mocked him and beat him and put him to death. He died for the sins they committed, including all of ours before we were even born. He never held anger or resentment against them; he loved them just like he loves us. He understands hurt and brokenness so he can feel our pain. With that being said, we should follow His example. He sacrificed His life for us so that we could be forgiven and free from things like this. We are His children and as His children, we are free from the kind of stuff that entraps us. We should be filled with joy and love for others and be solely focused on God and forgive others so we can be free from bitterness, anger, hatred, and sin.

Forgiveness isn't easy and also can be a slow process. It is a conscious decision and we must have faith that God will work in our hearts so we can forgive. We may not understand and feel the need to right the wrong ourselves, but that is not our place to do that. We don't have to talk to the person again or trust them with our lives, but we have to let go and not hold it against them anymore. We can't change the past so why live in it? Forgiveness gives us the freedom to be happy and no longer carry that burden. Only when we feel free from that have we truly forgiven someone.

Always remember what Christ did on the cross so that we could be forgiven. And in return, we can understand why we should forgive others.