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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Can I Forgive?

Can I Forgive?

We are all hurt individuals in some way. We regurgitate our hurts to our friends or strangers. We imprison ourselves with our hurts by harboring grudges and resentment.
Some of us have been hurt by:
· bosses who intimidated us
· teachers who called us stupid
· parents who abused us emotionally or physically
· spouses who abused us
· older children who bullied us
· merchants who cheated us
· friends who proved to be false
· enemies who would give no quarters
· self abused with addiction or alcoholism

What this means is that we live in a world of hurts: hardly a day passes without news of abuse, addiction, alcoholism, or broken marriages, ill health, cases of cruelty or desertion, death, disease, divorce or depression.

So, when someone does something against us, our immediate and natural response is one of hurt, anger, or resentment or bitterness, or harboring grudges or fear or sadness or revenge.

What others do to us, we often have very little control of. But we have much control in our responses to the hurt they inflict on us. Yes, we can concentrate on our responses to try to ensure that we are on top of the unhappy situation. Yet, we find that we are so human and that we often succumb to our emotions of anger or revenge or hurt. We imprison ourselves with our hurts. Is there a way that we can set ourselves free from this prison of our own making?

Yes, there is one possible way to free ourselves:

1. TAKE our RESPONSE and go to our Heavenly Father and say,

a. Talk to our Heavenly Father as though we are talking to our friends BUT with one difference. Admit that: I know this anger is not doing me any good, it is wrong and it is a sin. [This is confessing my sins]

b. Sincerely say, God I am sorry for my anger. [This is repenting of my sins]

c. Please forgive me.

d. Please help me to forgive him/her for his/her offence towards me. [Only God can forgive his/her sin, which he/she has to account with God.]

e. I receive Your forgiveness based on Your Word: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NKJV).

2. ACCEPT His forgiveness with faith: “When He saw their faith, He said to him, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you’" (Luke 5:20 NKJV). [This is my faith in acceptance]

3. MAKE A LIST of the grievances and go through this prayer over each incident.

4. TEAR up the grievances.

God Himself will begin to act on behalf of both parties. On our own we cannot forgive him/her. But, we need to forgive him/her and he/she needs to forgive us also. So, with the knowledge that, “God has poured out His love into our hearts” (Romans 5:5 TEV) and with His love in our heart, He will enable us to forgive. We will succeed in one instance and fail in another. But we continue to practice this way with faith. Ultimately, we know that His love is always stronger than our anger or hurt or bitterness.

source: www.jameslau88.com