Matthew 5: 23-24 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift”.

Forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness!!  What trouble this little word can bring if not practiced.  Forgiveness is hard especially when you know you are right and the other person is wrong. It takes everything out of you to forgive the person for all the hurt that he or she has caused you.

Once I worked with a person whose negative criticism of me and my work was a daily pain. The negative criticism grew in intensity until mental pain evolved into physical pain.  I began to internalize the pain and got quite sick.  This happened over the period of a couple of months.  Then one day I got the courage (reading Joshua 1) to express my own feelings about the situation to the person and this began my road to recovery.  However, I never recovered fully until I was able to forgive the person for the pain that I felt.  It did not matter whether he/she accepted it, I had to forgive for my release.

Today God wants us to forgive all those who have hurt us so bad.  Those secret ghosts that we are carrying around with us every day which are damaging us internally but whom we are not willing to let go.  Those who we refuse to let off so easily.  Guess what! Let them go!!! as they are “happy go lucky” about their business while we are nyaming up (destroying) ourselves.  It is never worth it to destroy this God-given vessel with hate.  God wants us to forgive those who trespass against or hurt us in every possible way so that HE can forgive us for all our unforgiveness too.  This is hard but necessary to our personal growth and development.  We will always be babies in the kingdom unless we learn to forgive our brothers and sisters expecting nothing in return. When we do this we will discover a whole new world out there waiting for us that is full of love, forgiveness, mercy and compassion. And guess what? You might find too that someone is waiting to forgive you too for the hurt you are causing them.

PRAYER

Daddy Jesus I need your forgiveness for not being able to forgive those who have hurt me.  Help me to forgive them even though it is hard and it takes everything I’ve got. I will Lord begin by crawling if necessary until I can reach walking and running in forgiveness.  Thank you for loving me just as I am and your willingness to give me lots of chances when I mess up.  In Jesus name, my big brother who is praying for me right now.  Amen.