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Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Forgiveness

Life is...Forgiveness

I was talking with a friend about a circumstance in her life, and it was so easy to say, ‘Forgive. It is for you, not for them.’ and ‘You can try to help people, try to show them a different way, but you can’t change them. You’re only responsible for yourself.’
The last statement alone is a pretty daunting one that I often don’t want to face. It’s easier for me to see a problem in someone else and “fix it” rather than see a problem in myself and have to do the real, hard work. 

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” - Matthew 7:4-5 
Wow, harsh word from Jesus, but the directness shows us how serious this issue is in our lives.

While I was “giving advice” to my friend I was thinking about my own circumstance and a person that had hurt me. I shared how bitterness, hate, and resentment had  consumed my thoughts and couldn’t help but pouring out into my life. I knew what I had to do, forgive, but I wasn’t ready to fully forgive and pray for them. When I was finally ready the words I prayed nearly choked me; it was hard! But I finally felt liberated from the bitterness and able to truly move on. Then one day they said something that brought it all back, and I was hurt - again. It would be easy to remove them from my life, and sometimes that is possible and the best thing to do, but let’s face it there will always be people that hurt us whether they mean to or not, and sometimes we can stop associating with them, but sometimes we can’t, and it is “a thorn in the flesh” as Paul says in 2 Corinthians. Maybe by going through the ups and downs of forgiveness with different people or the same person over and over we realize how many times someone has to forgive us for something we did or said, or didn’t do or say. And more importantly and more humbling God’s unending love for us and how many times He forgives us. 

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