Forgive to be forgiven

The Bible is full of idioms (I call this Jewish slang) that describes our responsibility in this journey that the Lord is leading us on. Some of these phrases are:

4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts Jeremiah 4:4

3 “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” Joshua 24:23

14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Joshua 24:14

Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; Hosea 10:12

These are all actions of repentance and part of what we learned under Godly Sorrow. Godly sorrow and repentance leads to forgiveness. Forgiveness brings freedom, peace, grace and many other benefits.

3 If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. Psalms 130:3-4

I think I can say that most of us want God’s forgiveness but there is an aspect of forgiveness that isn’t easy or pleasing to our more human side and that’s the aspect of “Forgive to be Forgiven.”

The bible tells us that there was a King who was handling his finances and he was going to those that owed him money and collecting what was owed. He came to this one servant who owed him a large amount of money but couldn’t pay. His decree was to throw the servant in prison and to sell his wife and children. The man threw himself upon the King’s mercy and the King forgave that HUGE debt.

This freed servant then went and found another servant that owed him money, such a small amount in comparison to what he had owed the King. When the man couldn’t pay he was not merciful and had him thrown in prison. The King heard how the mercy he had shown was not extended to another and he was furious and threw the unmerciful servant in prison.

MERCY
There is so much we all have done in our lives that hurt the Lord, grieved His spirit greatly and He has been so merciful to us. All that He gives us is something we should so easily extend to others such as mercy, grace, and love. When the Messiah hung on that cross, he looked down at those who were crucifying Him and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

There are people in this life who intentionally hurt others and then there are those who hurt us without ever realizing what they have done. I don’t know which is harder to forgive, sometimes I think it is the unintentional sins. Jesus said this…

44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:44-45

When our hearts our hurting and all we want is recompense or even something as simple as being validated. It can be so hard to love and pray for our enemies. We have to look at the deeper picture which is:

1. We were created in God’s image and part of upholding His image is to reflect Him to others and as Jesus put it… that we may be children of His.
2. Put yourself in their shoes… haven’t we all done the same thing especially to the Lord.
3. It keeps us free from bitterness and resentment. Bitterness, anger, resentment all result in emotional unrest and anguish. On a physical level, unforgiveness has been linked to cancer and other physical ailments. Why allow what others have done to us, effect our emotional and physical well being? Why give them that power?

Something the Lord put on my heart recently was to not only forgive the person, but for me to say to Him, I release this debt they owed me to you. By doing that I remove myself from this position of judge, jury and executioner and place the person in the hands of the Almighty God. I don’t need those burdens and emotions that those debts carried, they just weighed me down and quite honestly the measure we judge others by is the measure that we will be judged by. I don’t want to be like the wicked servant who got the sentence he pronounced on the other servant, I want to be an extender of God’s mercy.

Let us all learn to pray like David when he said….

Hear me, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; 3 have mercy on me, Lord, for I call to you all day long. 4 Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. 5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. 6 Hear my prayer, LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. 7 When I am in distress, I call to you, because you answer me. 8 Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. 9 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. 10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. 12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead. 14 Arrogant foes are attacking me, O God; ruthless people are trying to kill me— they have no regard for you. 15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. 16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength in behalf of your servant; save me, because I serve you just as my mother did. 17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me. Psalms 86

Take some time over the next few days to reflect on these words, and perhaps make a list of people that you need to forgive. Ask the Lord to reveal to you what hurts they have inside themselves that cause them to want to hurt others. If you need help forgiving them, ask Him for help. Then take those people’s debts and give them to the Lord.

Remember sometimes it is a process that you have to do over and over again, that doesn’t mean you didn’t forgive them the first time.