Forgiving and Forgiven
Forgiveness isn’t something that we humans have a propensity for. For us, it is about getting even, seeking retribution or making the other person or persons pay for what happened or is happening.
Even after accepting Jesus into our hearts, forgiveness is still elusive. Oh sure, many of us claim to have forgiven the offense while all that really occurred was to bury the offense in the back of our minds. Many of us have a very hard time truly forgiving the offender and the offense. What happens is many of us become tolerant or giving the appearance of being forgiving when there is self-harm taking place. Coincidentally, when forgiveness is faked, trust in self and others dissipates and eventually vanishes. Everyone has trials in life. Everyone has been subjected to injustices, betrayals, being pressured to do things against our conscience, being disliked or not accepted. Some have been through painful divorce where the families are broken apart and children end up thinking it was their fault and become disillusioned with marriage themself. Most of us have had jobs where we were treated like indentured servants or slaves. Some of us had long-term careers where jealously and political maneuvering made employment stressful, and often, downright hostile.
I encourage you to read the book of Job in the Bible; you will undoubtedly see your own story within its pages. All of us have our stories to tell. My life was a lot like Job’s, where friends betrayed me, where losing everything multiple times caused periods of deep despair where I blamed God for everything. What I learnt during my struggles was that I needed to accept my part, and that holding grudges, and not letting go of things I could not control was not worth my mental and physical health. Later as I maneuvered through life’s struggles as God wanted me to forgive everyone, including myself, and that was a tall order for me to accept. I really didn’t have any time to think about anyone else but myself. Grudges, revenge, etc., just wasn’t what I focused on. Finally, God put people on my path that helped in redirecting my life’s journey. As a result, I ended up accepting Jesus for real this time and my life was no was no longer focused on my pain, I actually began forgiving everything done to me, and what I did to everyone else, and that healed my soul.
As I dived into the Scriptures, and became involved in street ministry, I learned what it meant to be free from guilt, shame, defeat, hurt, remorse, revenge, spitefulness, self-centeredness, and pride. As a result, all those trials I went through, and trusting in Jesus for real this time, everything turned out much better. Like Job where he was rewarded by God at the conclusion of his testing, I also experienced a similar ending at the end of my trials, and at the end of my walking through those trials I was richly blessed by God.
I’m not writing something new: Many of you have gone through your own trials and experienced your own Job moments. And if you were like me and ended up truly trusting Jesus to see you through, my bet is that your ending was similar to Job’s and mine.
As followers of Christ Jesus none of us can go through life without forgiving and being forgiven and expect to be blessed by God. Giving up is not an option either. God does not wish for us to be defeated, He wants us to rely on Him and win. After all, the Lord says vengeance is His (Romans 12:19). Turn your vengeance, pain, guilt, grief, getting even over to God and forgive your enemies and yourself. Besides, Jesus already paid the ultimate price for sin, the sins of the world, and ours, past, present and future. In Paul’s letter to the Romans in chapter six we can understand more fully that we are no longer a slave to sin and should not continue to sin. Let’s take a look at Paul’s opening in Romans 6:1-14:
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
God tests us just as He tested Job, and God will continue to test us until it is time to leave and be with Him. Through each test or trial, it is not God punishing you, it is God helping you the become mature in Him and to truest in and rely on Him alone.
Now, may “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Num. 6:24-26)
Mike
23 December 2021
The Christian Underground Journal
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