For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing.     Matthew 6:14 HCSB

Jesus clearly states here if we want to be forgiven of our sins, we must be willing to forgive those who sin against us. It doesn’t say that there are any exceptions to this rule.

When we harbor unforgiveness in our hearts, if affects us it doesn’t affect the other person. They go on about their life. They may not know we are still angry with them and many times they don’t care. If they cared, they wouldn’t have hurt you in the first place, right?

If our sin is unforgiven, it impacts our relationship with Jesus. We are told in Isaiah 59:1-2, “Indeed, the LORD’s hand is not too short to save, and His ear is not too deaf to hear. But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen.”

Now stay with me here. If Jesus plainly told us that failing to forgive others would mean that God would not forgive us, this means our sins are still hanging there. If we confess our sins and repent, God is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness according to 1 John 1:9. Once God forgives our sin, He removes it. We are told in Psalm 103:12 God removes our sin as far from us as the east is from the west. It’s gone, forget about it.

However, if we refuse to forgive others and we harbor this bitterness and resentment in our hearts, God doesn’t forgive our sin. If He doesn’t forgive our sin, it means He doesn’t hear our prayers because our sin has created a barrier between Him and us.

The question you must ask yourself at this point, is the person who has hurt you important enough that you are willing to forfeit being in a right relationship with the Lord over this person? Are you willing to put yourself in a position where your sins can’t be forgiven and God isn’t listening to your prayers? Is it really worth all that to hold onto this grudge?

This is exactly what you do when you refuse to forgive. You sabotage your own relationship with Christ so you can harbor a grudge. This is self-destructive and it in no way effects the person you hold the grudge against. Think about it. Does this make good sense to you?

It took me a while to wrap my head around this, but I came to the realization that I had plenty of sin in my life. Even though I now struggle not to sin, I still do. I don’t want to, but I’m human, it happens.

There is no person or thing on this planet for whom I’m willing to sacrifice my relationship with my Lord and Savior. To sum it up, Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This was one of the hardest things I ever did. But when I did, something happened. My heart changed. I was able to let go of the bitterness and anger. I was able to give the situation over to God and trust Him with it.

I came to realize that I am God’s child. He loves His children. He will not let those who come against us go unpunished. He’s got this. When you pray for someone who has wronged you, one of two things will happen. Either they will turn to the Lord and be sorry for what they have done, and you will have a new brother or sister in Christ. Or, they will reject the Lord and He will deal harshly with them, probably way worse than you would have.

We are told in Psalm 37:1 that we should not fret over evildoers or envy those who do wrong. Whatever you do, don’t let them block your relationship with your Lord and Savior.

Have a great day!