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 you your wrongdoing. Matthew 6:14-15 HCSB
If you look this up in your Bible and your Bible has the words of Christ written in red, you will notice these words are written in red. Jesus, Himself, said this. I’ve often told you that Christianity is not for sissies. It is hard at times. We have to do the difficult stuff.
I remember years ago when I had rededicated my life to the Lord. I was on fire for Jesus. We were having a revival at our church, and I was so excited. I was inviting everyone. I wanted everyone to find the peace and joy I had found in the Lord.
There was a person who had caused me some problems and I was angry at this person. All was well though, because I hadn’t seen them in a while. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Well, wouldn’t you know it on the very day revival was due to start at our church, I bumped into this person. And all those old feeling of hatred and anger came back.
I hadn’t resolved these feelings when I went to revival that night. A friend came over after I got home. She had gone through a similar experience and told me how she had forgiven that person. I asked her how she did it. She said she prayed for them. She said you can’t stay angry at someone when you pray for them.
As soon as she left, I got down on my knees and prayed for this person. I continued to do so. The anger turned to compassion which was a much lighter load to carry.
Forgiveness was the hardest thing I have ever done as a Christian. But I know with prayer, God will walk me through it. To be honest, there were times before when I didn’t ask God to help me forgive someone because I didn’t want to forgive. I wanted to carry that anger and hatred around. And let me tell you, it was heavy.
Holding a grudge is exhausting. It only hurts the one holding it. Do you think the person you hold a grudge against cares? They probably don’t know or care that you are mad at them. Even if they do, what good does it do? If they cared about your feelings, they wouldn’t have hurt you in the first place.
Jesus said if we don’t forgive those who do us wrong, God won’t forgive our wrong doings. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got plenty of wrongdoings that need to be forgiven. I still make mistakes. I can’t run the risk of not being forgiven.
As Christians, we like to say we are not perfect, just forgiven. Well, if you are harboring a grudge against someone you can’t really say you are forgiven, can you?
Holding a grudge is dangerous. It hardens the heart. Pharaoh and his entire army drowned in the Red Sea because of his hardened heart (Exodus 14). It draws us away from God.
The only way we can live in eternity with God is to have our sins forgiven. Is your anger at another person worth you forfeiting an eternity in heaven? I’m not willing to risk that.
We will encounter mean, evil people as long as we are on earth. We can either rise above them or we can let them drag us down. I choose to rise above. This means I let go and let God handle them. We don’t have to be vengeful, that is God’s job (Romans 12:19). Forgive them, step back and let Him do His job.
Please understand, I’m not saying you have to hang out with this person. The Bible tells us bad company corrupts good morals (1 Corinthians 15:33). I am saying you need to forgive them and pray for their salvation. Often times with evil people we need to do this from a distance.
The hardest thing I have ever done since rededicating my life to the Lord is to forgive those who have hurt me. But when I give it to God, He walks me through. He will do the same for you.
Stop carrying that heavy burden of unforgiveness, forgive them and lighten your load.
Have a great day!