“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt. 6:14-15) Americans are notorious for picking and choosing which verses we like, and passing over the ones that make us uncomfortable. We love to be encouraged but dislike being corrected. In the most famous sermon ever preached, Jesus stresses the importance of forgiving others. He doesn’t mince words or skirt the brutal truth about forgiveness. Instead, he lays it out with the precision of a surgeon and forces us to square off with our hearts.
Forgiveness is usually looked upon in a favorable light when ‘we’ need it. We appeal to the merciful side of God whenever we realize our failures and ask the Lord for it. We see this clearly when we have failed or sinned. But, how about the flip side? What about when we have wronged someone and begin to see our need to ask for forgiveness from them? Are we as quick to make things right with those we have wronged? I hope so.
Just because we surrender our life to Jesus does not mean we are not going to fail or hurt others. We still need a lot of maturity as we begin our journey of faith, and one of the greatest roads to maturity is the willingness to forgive and be forgiven. It is sad when ‘repentance’ is looked upon as weak or unnecessary. I’ve heard so-called believers state, “I will repent to no man” or “I can never forgive them.” If we have offended someone, we are also responsible to repent to that person in order to see the relationship begin the process of healing.
We don’t see very much of that today. Instead of repenting, people just change friends or the crowds they run with, and this simply allows them to transfer their baggage and sin into their new friendships. In fact, and I want to say this with force, if our friends will not call our hand on any ungodly attitude or action, they are not true friends—they are only enablers of our rebellion to God.
After more than 30 years of ministry, I’ve seen a lot of destruction and heartache in families and in individuals. And many times it is from the failure to forgive others or seek forgiveness from others. Satan pushes us to walk in stubborn pride while the Lord desires us to walk in grace and a spirit of forgiveness. We can attend every church service in the area, join every religious organization in the country, but if we will not forgive those who have wronged us, Jesus said we will not be forgiven. These are the cold hard facts; there is no room for argument. Let us choose the way of the Cross and we will experience healing and restoration through…The Power of Forgiveness!
