And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  Matthew 6:12-15 ESV

There was only one man who managed to live 33 years on this earth and not sin. That was Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23 tells us that all sin and fall short of the glory of God. That means you and me, we all sin. We all fail. None of us are perfect. The problem comes in when we expect perfection in others. For us to expect perfection from our fellow mortals is an unreasonable expectation.

Because we all fail, we all need forgiveness. We don’t just fail one time and then we are done, we fail over and over. We fail to do the things that God calls us to do. We fail to not do the things God tells us not to do. If we were to go through the Ten Commandments, we would find that according to God’s standards, we violate them on a regular basis. God’s word is very clear. He expects us to forgive others, just as He forgives us. He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross so that we can be forgiven of our sins. But, we must accept Christ as our Savior and we must forgive others.

Now, here is where some of you will say things like, “Well, I can forgive but I can’t forget. Or, you just don’t understand what horrible thing they have done to me, it’s unforgivable.”  I understand that, I really do. I used to say that same thing about people that had harmed me or someone I loved. Forgiveness is very difficult. I understand that. But, once we accept Christ as our Savior and ask His Holy Spirit to fill our hearts, forgiveness gets a lot easier. We begin to understand the awesome thing that Jesus did for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). He didn’t wait for us to apologize or change our ways, while we still miserable, rotten sinners, He died for us.

He wants us to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind (Matthew 22:37-39). He wants us to love others as we love ourselves. This means we forgive them as we want Jesus to forgive us. I haven’t found any Scripture that tells me I have to trust someone who has wronged me. I haven’t found any Scripture that even tells me that I must continue to associate with them. As a matter of fact, Scripture tells us that we are to avoid sin. If someone fails to repent and get right with God, we are under no obligation to associate with them. 1 Corinthians 15:33 tells us bad company will corrupt good morals.

But, we are told we are to love them and pray for them (Matthew 5:44-46). When you are praying for them, you will find forgiveness comes much easier. You can also pray and ask God to help you to forgive them and to remove bitterness from your heart. I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt.

We must understand that deep down we are all failures. But, don’t get too discouraged. God sent His Son to save us from all that. We just need to confess our sins, believe in Him and commit ourselves to Him and He will save us from our failure and our sinful behavior.

It has been said that refusing to forgive someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Unforgiveness is like a cancer that will destroy us if it goes unattended. Our unforgiveness only hurts us. The other person is happily going on about their lives while we are letting unforgiveness, bitterness, and anger eat us up alive.

God isn’t asking us to do anything that He isn’t willing to do for us. So, we shouldn’t ask Him to do for us what we are unwilling to do for others. When someone sins, we take it personally. We say they sinned against us. They may have perpetrated an evil act against us, but they sinned against God. We need to forgive what they did to us if we want Him  to forgive us for our failures. It’s just that simple.

If you are harboring unforgiveness today, let it go. Give it over to God. Unforgiveness, bitterness and anger hold us in bondage. Let go of it today. Trust God to help you with that.

Have a great day!