Forgiveness is something hard to understand.
There are all sorts of definitions, but I'm not sure they all are right---or partly right.
I'm still discovering forgiveness myself.
I'm convinced it is something completely autonomous. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with anyone else. It is a personal condition of the heart, and we are responsible for it completely.
That said, it usually involves attitudes toward others. Yes, there is the anomaly of needing to forgive one's self at times.
We humans are so easily offended, though. People hurt us.
I'm sorry. I'm sensitive. You probably hurt me or my feelings once----
And I needed to forgive you. Perhaps in that moment, perhaps in the middle of the night when the introvert/introspective re-hashed the entire conversation---
Perhaps in the months that followed. Perhaps for years, perhaps each time the memory surfaces.
I'm speaking for all of us. I believe we either gloss over hurts, forget them, be "Teflon," or nurse them.
We are human. We react.
But suppose we hurt someone? Suppose our human nature is so choleric that we do it often and well? Suppose we cease to care about those we hurt? What if we trampled on people right and left, abusing them with words and deeds?
There are those like that. I bet we each know someone like that. Maybe WE are like that!
Human nature is so annoying.
Then are those who live with that daily hurt, enabling the perpetrator's whims and habits!
Forgiveness comes hard then. Especially after a thick skin is grown to deflect those never-ending barbs.
Perhaps people think that is some form of forgiveness. I wonder.
Forgiveness is hard.
But God asks us to do it.
So even if there hasn't been a sign of being sorry, regret, or repentance, we are still on the hook. We still need to forgive.
God is just. He is love. That infinite balance is described in the Bible.
He knows we are unable to forgive easily. He understands. The whole earth needed His forgiveness, and he provided that bridge of forgiveness at the cost of death on the cross.
He understands.
So, yes. I have hurt you. She has hurt you. He has hurt you. _______has hurt you. I am hurt .....
You and I must forgive. We must. We allow that hurt to become a fragrance of the forgiveness of God.
Forgive as I have forgiven you. He said it.
Don't live today with that memory of pain. Give it to God, and live freely. It's Independence Day here in the USA. Be free of that wrong doing, that problem, that hurt. Be independent.
There are all sorts of definitions, but I'm not sure they all are right---or partly right.
I'm still discovering forgiveness myself.
I'm convinced it is something completely autonomous. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with anyone else. It is a personal condition of the heart, and we are responsible for it completely.
That said, it usually involves attitudes toward others. Yes, there is the anomaly of needing to forgive one's self at times.
We humans are so easily offended, though. People hurt us.
I'm sorry. I'm sensitive. You probably hurt me or my feelings once----
And I needed to forgive you. Perhaps in that moment, perhaps in the middle of the night when the introvert/introspective re-hashed the entire conversation---
Perhaps in the months that followed. Perhaps for years, perhaps each time the memory surfaces.
I'm speaking for all of us. I believe we either gloss over hurts, forget them, be "Teflon," or nurse them.
We are human. We react.
But suppose we hurt someone? Suppose our human nature is so choleric that we do it often and well? Suppose we cease to care about those we hurt? What if we trampled on people right and left, abusing them with words and deeds?
There are those like that. I bet we each know someone like that. Maybe WE are like that!
Human nature is so annoying.
Then are those who live with that daily hurt, enabling the perpetrator's whims and habits!
Forgiveness comes hard then. Especially after a thick skin is grown to deflect those never-ending barbs.
Perhaps people think that is some form of forgiveness. I wonder.
Forgiveness is hard.
But God asks us to do it.
So even if there hasn't been a sign of being sorry, regret, or repentance, we are still on the hook. We still need to forgive.
God is just. He is love. That infinite balance is described in the Bible.
He knows we are unable to forgive easily. He understands. The whole earth needed His forgiveness, and he provided that bridge of forgiveness at the cost of death on the cross.
He understands.
So, yes. I have hurt you. She has hurt you. He has hurt you. _______has hurt you. I am hurt .....
You and I must forgive. We must. We allow that hurt to become a fragrance of the forgiveness of God.
Forgive as I have forgiven you. He said it.
Don't live today with that memory of pain. Give it to God, and live freely. It's Independence Day here in the USA. Be free of that wrong doing, that problem, that hurt. Be independent.
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