Forgive… Just Try

        When you are hurt, you operate in feelings. Bitterness blames. Unfortunately, psychology will only help you find who to blame, but God will teach you how to heal. 

        Bitterness oftentimes distorts the truth in order to justify its hurt. Bitterness is allowing the past to hold you back. Think of bitterness as peeling off the scab constantly. Whereas forgiveness is freedom from the past. How can you calculate forgiveness?  Jesus said the calculation for forgiveness is 70×7.

        When we don’t forgive, it’s oftentimes because we feel that we have been hurt by others and do not deserve that. But how long you will stay hurt is really up to you. You’re the only one that can let it go. If you hold on to hurt you hurt yourself. 

        So that decision of letting go is entirely yours. You keep reinfecting yourself, every time you nourish bitterness. Jesus said that the forgiveness that you extend to others will be extended to you. Forgiveness will make you more than a conqueror. Because not only will you win the battle over your bitterness, but in forgiving the one who has offended you, you also win a friend.

Let’s COMMIT to make the following verses OURS.

Mt 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.

Mk 11:25 And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

Mt 18:21,22, 35 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

Ps 18:25 With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless.

Pr 3:3-4 Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem In the sight of God and man.

Pr 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.

Mt 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Mt 7:12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

Lk 6:36-37 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Lk 7:47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

Lk 17:4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.

Ro 12:19-21 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Eph 4:31-32 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.

Heb 12:15  Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

Col 3:13a-14 Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.