Forgiving Love
Forgiveness.
Our ticket to freedom. When we forgive, we cut those chains that hold us back
in our past. Because everytime we try to move forward, the sound of those
chains brings the old memories alive. And hurt people hurt other people. As
Christians we have mastered the theory of forgiveness, but still it is
incredibly difficult to forgive well. To forgive like Jesus forgave us. We even
pray this in the Father´s prayer: ,,Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us." I usually quickly add a line: Lord,
please, teach me to forgive better.. We cannot forgive well, if we are not
healed completely. We live in a fallen world, so there are always new
wounds coming up, some are just scratches, some go right through your heart. Sometimes
I think of church (not Church) as a special training school for
forgiving.
The Lord in His
mercy started teaching me about forgiving pretty early. He gave me two younger
sisters – twins. Double portion 😊 They really had a special gifting
in provoking and annoying me, when all I wanted to do, was to read my
books in peace. But with them it was impossible! They always wanted something
from me, and when I gave it to them, they normally lost or destroyed it.
Of course, I had my own ways for fighting back, usually by trying to
ignore them, calling them kids etc. But eventually I learned to forgive
them. On daily basis. Otherwise I would not be able to speak to them at
all. I guess they learned also, that there is nothing they can say or do
to me, that will stop me from loving them. Just last weekend they teased me about my next blog being about the squirell jumping in the trees.. Nothing much changed :) Later I learned that
I have to forgive my parents (even though they were very loving, they were
not perfect and made few mistakes along the way) in order to have a good
relationship with them. And of course I was forgiven on regular basis as
well. You first learn to forgive in your family.
Later on
I learned to forgive my friends, my colleagues, my bosses.. Normally when
some relationships were not workng well, the Lord reminded mit in prayer to
forgive that person. That enabled me to pray and bless them in a new way. I was not perfect, but I was willing to learn. After my dad died
I was angry with God. So angry, that I told Him things I had no right
to tell. That He is cruel, that His word is no true, I just asked Him to
leave me alone. I was hurt and horrible accusations were coming out of my
broken heart.
Not so long ago
I was talking to Him and wanted to repent once again. So I told Him
how sorry I am for all the terrible words I told Him back then.
I will never forget His reaction. He looked at me really surprised, raised
His eyebrows and asked me: ,,What are you talking about?" In that moment
I understood His forgiving Love. My sins are totally forgotten, deleted,
like they never existed. They are gone for ever! He will never ever bring the
subject up! That is the way He forgives us, the way He loves us. That is the
way we should forgive others. We only will be able to forgive like this when we
understad and receive His forgiveness. You cannot give what you do not have.
,,Lord, please, teach us to forgive like You do. Show us today Your forgiving Love, help us receive and renew our minds. We want to love like You do."
Comments
Post a Comment