As a new year begins resolutions are announced. Weight loss and personal growth are among the most popular. Thinking about my own hopes for the new year I began to set a path for my plans and discovered that without freeing myself I would never succeed. But in order to free myself, I needed the key to the door and that key was forgiveness.
Forgiveness can come easy and forgiveness can be difficult depending on how you look at it. Forgiving someone for missing a birthday can be easy, but somethings seem more difficult or even downright impossible to forgive. A divorce you did not see coming, a death of a loved one caused by negligence, or a physical attack on you or your child are just a few examples of unforgivable actions. It seems to be humanly impossible to forgive some things.
I've heard all my life that forgiving others does not mean that you forget. Well, how do you forgive if you can't forget? This whole concept needs to be reconstructed. I have to go deeper and change my perspective of the offender's actions. I have to look at the situation from a different angle. I have to find a way to make sense out of forgiving the so-called unforgivable. This is impossible to do unless unconditional love (the love of God) is employed. Looking to God, through the love of Jesus Christ, and forgiving the person is not letting the person off. You are just handing them over to God and by doing so free yourself with the key of forgiveness. That same forgiveness freed you from your sins. Jesus explained this in Luke 6:37, “If you forgive, you will be forgiven” (NIV). Likewise, Mark 11:25 states, “When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (NIV).
As a Christ follower, I have to look through the eyes of the one who forgave me of my sins and try and understand forgiveness. How could God give His Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for every sin of humanity? What did he see when he forgave me? What God saw was the end result, the finished product, the ugliness of the innocent becoming the guilty. God not only sees our today but our yesterday and our future. God knows what unforgiveness does to a person from the inside out. Unforgiveness completely destroys, period! In order to offer forgiveness, God had to sacrifice an unblemished, perfect substitute, His only Son Jesus Christ. Not only that but Jesus had to willingly die and take upon him all the sins of humanity in order for forgiveness to be offered. With that perspective, it makes it a bit easier to understand forgiveness.
Corrie ten Boom who authored “The Hiding Place”, helped hide many Jews during the Holacaust. Although she was eventually caught and imprisoned she forgave her captors and explained in her book, “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” I understand that not everyone is a Corrie ten Boon, but I do believe that forgiveness is a journey that can change who you are for the better and reshape your whole perspective on how life is supposed to be lived.
I have to make a decision to take God's offer of forgiveness by accepting His Son Jesus Christ as my Savior. The same way I have to make a decision to forgive others. It takes faith in the one who put all this in place. I have to put into action the unseen force of God's Grace to help me forgive the way Jesus Christ forgave me when He died on the Cross. It is my belief that we are here, not necessarily to be happy and fulfilled, but to become more like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! It's not easy and as I stated above,”Forgiveness is a journey that can change who you are for the better and reshape your whole perspective on how life is supposed to be lived. God stated in Jeremiah 29:11 about his plans for us, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (NIV).
Your Sister in Christ,
Jacque Barnes
