Forgiveness – The Marriage Saver
Psalm 103: 11 says: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.”
At the same time, God expects us to be compassionate, loving and merciful too.
It is a two-way street.
As you all know, numerous times in the Bible, Jesus said that if we do not show mercy, we will not be shown mercy. If we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven.
For example, the “Our Father” says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
Jesus also said, “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).
So, we must forgive others. But how?
Easier said than done, right?
We tend to be blind to our own faults but to see others’ faults with 20-20 vision!
So, one thing that helps is to remember our own imperfections.
As it says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.,” and that includes each of us.
1 John 1:8 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
Or, as Jesus said (Matthew 7:3): “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
I was driving past someone’s home the other day, someone I know very well, and as I drove past, I thought, “Boy, she really falls short in loving others.”
But then I thought, “But don’t I fall short in loving too? Am I all that I should be to her or to others? No! So, I have to forgive her.”
We also have to realize it isn’t the person we are fighting. As it says in Ephesians 6:12: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (KJV).
Satan sometimes works through other people to hurt us, maneuvering them like puppets.
There is some painful reason why the person is acting like he or she is. As the saying goes:
“Hurt people hurt people.”
The person has some good inside too.
The Amish, who practice forgiveness as a major part of their faith, were asked how they could forgive the evil man who burst into an Amish schoolhouse in 2006 and shot five little girls to death.
An Amish man said, “He did an evil deed. But he was not an evil man.”
In fact, even the most evil-seeming person has the original nature, the divine stamp of God somewhere deep inside. So, even if he or she is acting evil, the person is not all evil. He or she is also a child of God. Knowing that, we can begin to open our hearts to forgive.
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