Forgiveness

Wow! Everything I know about being a Christian is being challenged this week!

I always thought that I was to forgive and to forget, but now I find out I've got it all wrong! I'm not meant to forget! How liberating!

"What are you talking about?" I hear you screaming at your monitor!

Well, I was given 11 points on forgiveness today. 2 of them struck me like lightning.

The first:

Forgiveness is not excusing!

What does this mean? Well, it means to forgive someone is to acknowledge that they did something wrong. It is to judge! I didn't think we were supposed to judge as Christians, BUT WE ARE! We HAVE to judge, so that we can forgive! If we excused it, or dismissed it, we'd be doing the other person a disservice. We HAVE to judge the action to acknowledge that it was wrong. Then we forgive them to give them freedom. We forgive out of freedom. Freedom to love the other person. We judge the action (not the person) so that we can restore our relationship with that person!

The second:

Forgiveness is not forgetting!

Huh?!? Aren't we supposed to forgive and forget?!?!?!? NO!!! We're supposed to remember! We're supposed to be angry! It's ok to be angry with someone for hurting you! What a liberating revelation!!!

Remembering is the secret of redemption! You see, God remembers everything. But doesn't it say that God will forget our transgressions when we confess and repent? Well, no, it doesn't. It says, God remembers our sin no more. That means, he won't judge us according to our sins. He still remembers that we've sinned, but he loves us anyway. He chooses not to judge us based on our actions. When God "remembers", He acts to save!


We forgive because God first forgave us. You can only forgive someone after you have known what it is to be forgiven. Because God forgives us, we should forgive others.

But forgiving doesn't mean forgetting. To forget would be wrong. It would allow ourselves to to wander into the same type of situation to get hurt all over again. No, no. The scars are there for us to remember. After a while, they stop hurting, but they are always there to remind us. But the scars don't stop us from releasing the desire for revenge.

Forgiveness is simply relinquishing your demand to get even with someone that hurt you. You can be angry. You can be upset. You can be disappointed. Forgiveness is not a feeling. It is an action. It is something you do! It doesn't mean you have to forget that you wer ehurt, angry or disappointed. It is simply giving up the need for revenge.

You know, someone has probably hurt you, and you feel like you've never really forgiven them for it, but you never set out to hurt them back. You know what? You've already forgiven them! But you still feel angry about it? Well, that's ok. That will heal. The scar will be there forever, but after a while it won't hurt anymore. God loves you. God forgives you. Because he forgives you, you can forgive others.

Blessings!
Allan