Matthew 6:14, 15 - More Thoughts on Forgiveness.
Matthew 6:14, 15 (NLT) If you forgive
those who sin against you, your heavenly Father
will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive
others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Sand In The Machinery
If we are to maintain spiritual
freshness, we must determine to forgive everyone who
hurts us and refuse to nurse a grudge. Grudges
become glooms.
A Jew years after World War II, a
Christian Japanese boy at a public speaking contest
announced that his subject would be "The Sacredness of
Work. Some people smiled at his choice, but when
they heard his story, their smiles turned to
tears. His parents and home were burned to ashes in
the atomic bomb explosion at Nagasaki. He was
the eldest of three surviving children, and
together they knelt in the ashes of their home and
prayed to know what to do. One of them said: "I
know - we can work. So they set to work,
gathering bits of tin and boards, and soon they had
built a little hut in which to live. They could
have nursed their grudge and become gloomy;
instead they forgave, forgot, and went to work.
No one who wants to maintain spiritual
freshness can afford to nurse a grudge. It will poison
both spirit and body. As one doctor put it:
"Grudges put the whole physical and mental system on
a war basis instead of on a peace basis.
Walter Alvarez, who is both a medical
doctor and counselor, says: "I often tell patients
they cannot afford to carry grudges or maintain
hates. Such things can make them ill and tire them
out. I once saw a man kill himself inch by inch,
simply by thinking of nothing but hatred for a
relative who had sued him. Within a year or two he
was dead. A grudge or a resentment is sand in
the machinery of living.
Oh Father, teach me how to get the
splinters of resentment out of my soul and also out of
my body. Help me to decide that it is the oil
of love, not the sand of resentments, that
shall go into the machinery of my life day by day.
Amen. [Every Day With Jesus Bible with Selwyn
Hughes devotionals re Matthew 18:32-33]
Victory Over Unforgiveness
Immediately after teaching His followers
to pray, Jesus gave a warning about allowing
unforgiveness to reside in the heart. He said that those
who refuse to forgive others won't be forgiven
by the Father.
Do not misunderstand Jesus' meaning here.
Believers don't lose their salvation when they refuse
to forgive. Rather, they break fellowship with
God because their unrepentant attitude gets in
the way of regular confession and repentance.
The Lord cannot ignore sin, and His Spirit will
bring wrong behavior to the believer's attention
until he or she deals with it.
Forgiveness is an act of the will more
than an act of the heart. Often people don't feel
like being merciful to someone who has wronged
them. But a resentful spirit grows into a terrible
burden. The Lord knows that forgiveness is best,
even when it is difficult.
You won't deal with a sin until you see
it as God does. So assume full responsibility
for your unforgiving attitude, and acknowledge
that it is a violation of His Word. Claim the
divine mercy He offers, and ask Him to enable you
to lay aside anger and resentment against the
other person(s). As part of the decision to move
forward in grace, make a habit of praying for those
who hurt you. And if God so leads, seek their
forgiveness for your wrong attitude.
A bitter and resentful spirit doesn't fit
who we are in Christ. Nor is it healthy to carry
an angry attitude through life. That's why
Scripture emphasizes the need to forgive. Choose to be
liberated from your burden - Jesus promised to make us
free when we release our sins to Him (John 8:36).
[In Touch Daily Devotional by Charles Stanley at
www.intouch.org re Daniel 6]
Three Reasons You Must Learn to Forgive
Forgiveness isnt easy. It can be one
of the hardest decisions youll ever make.
But youll never have the life God
wants for you unless you can forgive the people
who have hurt you. Here are three reasons why
its essential to forgive others:
We forgive because God has forgiven us.
When you come to Christ, your sins arent just
forgiven. Theyre wiped out! God has no record of
your sins anymore.
The Bible says, There is now no
condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus.
For the power of the life-giving Spirit - and
this power is mine through Christ Jesus - has
freed me from the vicious circle of sin and
death (Romans 8:1-2 TLB).
Each person faces a vicious circle, where
you want to change, but you make a mistake and
feel bad about it. Then you try again, fail, and
feel bad about it again. Its a cycle that you
likely wont break until you learn to offer
forgiveness to people who have hurt you because you have
been offered forgiveness yourself through
Christ.
We forgive because resentment will make
us miserable. Holding on to a hurt is like
drinking poison and hoping it kills the person you
hate. It always hurts you more than it hurts the
other person.
I know people who continue to be hurt by
individuals they havent seen in decades. Thats
just foolish. Those people cant hurt you
anymore without your permission.
You can choose to be happy, or you can
hang on to hurt. You cant do both.
We forgive because well need more
forgiveness in the future. Youre not done making
mistakes. Im not either. I plan on making a few
more mistakes over the rest of my life. And, of
course, Ill need someone to forgive me when I
do!
Someone once came to 18th-century British
theologian John Wesley and told him about a person he
couldnt forgive. Wesley told the man, Then I hope
you never sin.
We cant receive what were unwilling
to give others. Jesus says it like this: But
if you do not forgive others their sins, your
Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew
6:15NIV).
Forgiving people who have hurt you
isnt just the right thing to do. Its the smart
thing to do. [Daily Devotional by Rick Warren:
https://pastorrick.com/devotional/]
How to Forgive
If difficulties concerning basic trust on
a natural level can hinder our ability to
trust at a spiritual level, how do we as
Christians overcome this? The first thing we must do is
demonstrate a willingness to forgive those who hurt us.
"That's hard," you might say. My reply is: "Yes, in
the case of those who have been badly let down,
it is hard"but not impossible."
Here's how you do it. Focus first on how
much you have been forgiven. The key to forgiving
others is to enter into a realized awareness of how
much God has forgiven you. When people say to me
during a counseling session, "My problem is that I
can't forgive," I usually respond by saying, "No,
that's not your problem. Your problem is that you
don't know how much you have been forgiven." It
may be difficult for some to see this,
especially those who have gone through deep hurt, but
nothing others have done to you is as awful as what
you have done to God.
If you have difficulty with the last
statement, it is because you do not understand the
nature of sin. Sin is taking the Creator of the
universe and relegating Him to irrelevance; it is
saying to the One who made us""I can run my life
on my own terms." Sin is insanity"and you and
I have been guilty of that. Yet in Christ God
has forgiven us, pardoned us, and bestowed upon
us His royal favor. Having been given such
forgiveness, can we, dare we, withhold it from anyone who
has betrayed our trust, no matter how horrifying
that hurt has been?
Father, Your Word is frank and
open"help me to respond to it in the same way. Take
from me every biting hesitancy, every fear and
apprehension, every refusal to accept responsibility. In
Jesus' name I pray. Amen. [Every Day With Jesus
Bible with Selwyn Hughes devotional re Proverbs
30:33]
Choose to Forgive
Jesus gives us stern and uncompromising
warnings about forgiveness. But if forgiveness is so
important and yet so difficult, how do we go about it?
We must do several things.
First, we must not try to minimize or
dismiss the offense as if it never happened. If it
hurts, then we must face it and feel it. A common
misconception that keeps people from forgiving is that
they think in order to forgive they must come to
the place where they look upon the things done
to them as being really not that bad. That is
excusing, not forgiving. C. S. Lewis says: "Real
forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin
that is left over without any excuse after all
allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its
horror, dirt, meanness and malice, and nevertheless
being wholly reconciled to the man who has done
it. That, and only that, is forgiveness."
Second, we must see that forgiveness is
not an emotional thing (though it can affect the
emotions), but a matter of the will. It is making the
decision that the wrong done against you will not
count or cause a separation. In making that
decision, remember you have all the resources of God
available to you. This applies not just to minor
matters like snubs, but major matters like divorce.
The task of forgiving must be more than a
match for the magnitude of the pain involved. A
choice has to be made. No matter how we are
wronged, we can choose out of a desire for love to
forgive.
Lord Jesus Christ, You looked into the
eyes of those who hammered You to a cross and
cried: "Father, forgive them!" Help me do the same
when I am confronted with lesser injury or hurt.
For Your own dear name's sake. Amen. [Every Day
With Jesus Bible with Selwyn Hughes devotional re
Proverbs 17:9]
For the Sake of Christ
We experience divine forgiveness for our
sins only as we extend forgiveness to those who
have offended us.
This cuts deep.
Perhaps you might be saying at this
moment, "But I can't forgive; I have been hurt too
deeply." Then, may I say it very tenderly, but very
solemnly, you can never, never be forgiven. "But if
you don't forgive people," says Jesus, "your
Father will not forgive your wrongdoing" (Mt 6:15).
In refusing to forgive others you break the
bridge over which you yourself must pass.
A man once said to me: "I know I'm a
Christian, but someone did such an awful thing to me
that I find I can't forgive him." After spending
a good deal of time with him, and getting
nowhere, I said: "If it is really true that you can't
forgive this person, it suggests that you yourself
have not been forgiven, and you may be deluding
yourself that you are a Christian." He looked at me
aghast and went white in the face. My counseling
methods are not always as abrupt as that; however,
this brought him face to face with reality"and
it worked. He got down on his knees, right
where he was, and said: "Father, because You have
forgiven me, I offer Your forgiveness and my
forgiveness to my brother who has offended me, and I
absolve him of his offense in Jesus' name." Then
what happened? Instantly the joy of the Lord
streamed right into the center of his being, and he
laughed and laughed, literally, for almost an hour.
Lord Jesus, You who forgave those who
spat in Your face and nailed You to a cross, help
me to open my heart now and forgive all those
who have hurt me. I do it in Your strength and
power. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Amen. [Every Day With
Jesus Bible with Selwyn Hughes devotional re
Ephesians 4:32]
LINK FOR FURTHER STUDY ON THIS TOPIC
Matthew 6:14, 15 - Forgiveness Is Essential.
http://www.abible.com/devotions/2021/20210808-1044.html
YOUR COMMENTS
If anyone has a paraphrase, commentary or
testimony on this passage of Scripture, either
personal or otherwise, I would be interested in
hearing from you. Thanks in advance and let's keep
uplifting Jesus that all might be drawn to Him. Fred
Gibbs
LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT
Most Important Decision in Life:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WGnEuGwvXqU?rel=0
Steps to Peace by Billy Graham:
https://stepstopeace.org/
A Man without Equal by Bill Bright:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVa7UoruIo
Seeking God Made Real:
http://vimeo.com/31489782
Prayer Made Real:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc8VdMV26VE
Importance of Choice:
http://creationhealth.com/CREATION-Health/Choice [click on video]
Medical Seminar on Healthful Living by David
DeRose, MD, MPH:
https://www.smartlifestyletv.com/lifestart
LINKS FOR BIBLE STUDIES
Lifting Up Jesus Bible Studies:
http://www.liftingupjesus.net/
Amazing Facts Bible Studies:
http://www.amazingfacts.org/bible-study/bible-study-guides.aspx
Hope Awakens Bible Study Guides:
https://www.hopeawakens.study/lesson-header;id=2
Glow Tract Video Bible Studies:
http://www.bibleresearch.info/
LINKS FOR BIBLE PROPHECY SEMINARS
Islam and Christianity in Prophecy, The
Third and Final Conflict by Tim Roosenberg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHSJB-fuHLU&list=PLWhQIHGTHlkaGg5Cwe3NDzWtFX8vNSpsE
Unlocking Bible Prophecies by Cami Oetman of
Adventist World Radio: https://www.awr.org/bible
Revelation Now by Pastor Doug Batchelor:
https://www.revelationnow.com/
Hope Awakens by John Bradshaw of IIW:
https://itiswritten.tv/programs/hope-awakens
Prophecies Decoded by Pastor Ron Clouzet:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1A435C5373550657
