Forgive If You Want Forgiveness

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
(Matthew 6:14-15)

Nearly every person on the planet has very deep wounds suffered at the hands of others. Often, someone we love, and trust is the one who will hurt us. It’s a given that our closest family members or our best friends are going to let us down sooner or later. It might be anything from verbal and/or physical abuse from a parent or spouse, to a betrayal from a friend you trusted. No matter who does something that hurts us it can be painful. It only stands to reason, if someone has hurt us, we have hurt someone else. Maybe we didn’t mean to, maybe we didn’t even realize we hurt them, but if we want them to forgive us, we must be willing to forgive them.
You might be tempted to say, “You don’t know how much I was hurt.” Guess what? God knows! He was hurt by the same thing that hurt you. If I were to do something to purposely hurt you, like gossiping or bearing false witness, I am committing a sin against God. Every time we sin against anyone we sin against God. Until we come to Christ we carry around a lot of baggage from our past. Carrying that unforgiving spirit around with us only hurts us and keeps us separated from God. We have to unpack that baggage, give it to God, and forgive those who’ve trespassed against us. Then we are free from all that past pain, and be truly forgiven ourselves, by God.
If I think about how I feel after someone I love does something to hurt me, it’s easy to see how the Father in heaven feels about my sins against him. More than once, my spirit has been crushed to the point I found it difficult to get out of bed or eat. It has always been by someone I loved and never thought they would do anything like that to me. In looking back, I know I’ve done similar things to others as well. I can’t tell you how terrible that makes me feel. I never thought of my behavior as being sins against God but that’s exactly what they were. Every sin, small or great, I committed, was a sin against him. Even though I wasn’t saved at the time, even though I didn’t love him, God loved me. If I want the Father to forgive me, I HAVE TO FORGIVE OTHERS. 





Father God your goodness makes us wish we could be like you. We know we are sinners in need of salvation and we thank you everyday for giving us a Savior. We know we have sinned against others, Lord, and in doing so, we have sinned against you. When we hurt someone, make us aware right away with a nudge from the Holy Spirit. Give us the courage to apologize with a sincere heart, not feeling forced or out of obligation to anyone other than you. In the same way, we seek your forgiveness when we’ve sinned against others. Thank you for being faithful to forgive when we come with repentant hearts. Since we are seeking your forgiveness for our debts, help us to willingly forgive those who are indebted to us because of past wrongs. Thank you for showing us, Lord, we’re only keeping ourselves in that prison of hatred by not forgiving them. Thank you also for that feeling of freedom we get when we release others from a past sin against us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen!
Location: Atwood Lake Park, 9500 Lakeview Rd, Mineral City, OH 44656, USA

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