This little light of mine…
We are called to respond to conflict in a counter-cultural manner. A way in which is not natural, at least not to me.
In this section of my blog, I will write and sometimes vlog a forgiveness letter to those who offended me as channel of healing.
The bible is very clear that forgiveness is part of the crux of the Christian life: “and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) A clean slate is the goal! The debt should be completely gone. Jesus commands: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”(Luke 6:36)
Be kind to one another, compassionately forgiving one another as God has forgiven us as we forgive one another.” (Ephesians 4:32) God dealt with our string of offenses by offering His one and only Son as a sacrifice when he died on the cross! Our offenses are gone and never to be counted against us. But, there’s a condition, only if we place our faith in Christ and allow him to be the one in whom we are viewed through by God. “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) We are no longer judged for our sins, Jesus paid the final debt at the Cross. (1 Peter 3:8)
True forgiveness looks like the below statements:
I will Not dwell on this case.
I will not bring this case up and use it against you.
I will not ignite the case by talking about it over and over again.
I will not allow this case to stand in between or hinder our relationship.
Proper forgiveness is acting as if the case never occurred. In legal terms, the case have been dismissed and expunged, there is no record of the record. We must forgive the way in which Christ forgave us. He said “I will no longer remember your sins…” (Isaiah 43:25)
Broken relationships strip us from experiencing the abundant life Jesus died so we would have. If we don’t forgive bitter, anger and a host of other toxic traits are produced are just not healthy for anyone.
In fact, the oppressor is not offended and could care less. Often times they have gone on with their life and has no remorse for the offense. As Christians, we can’t fret over such or wait for an apology. We have to forgive and move on. I’m learning this hard truth.
We are advised to forgive anyone who offended us before praying. This is profound! “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25) Translation: In order to experience a healthy prayer life with Christ, we must FIRST forgive others.
We can’t afford not to forgive, it robs us from thriving in life. God is very serious about forgiveness. It blocks our relationship with him.
Candidly, no one can ever offend us at the level we have offended and rebelled against our creator, our heavenly father. We offended the holy God, who created us, loved us, who donated His one and only son as a release for our diabolical shenanigans. So the minimum I can do is offer mercy to others.
Loads of Love,
Tash Briggs