And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your sins. Mark 11:25-26
Forgiveness. The final frontier.
I'm positive this will come up again and again throughout our study about relying on God. It's a bottom-line essential in our lives.
And pretty easy. Sometimes. Like when someone backs into your car in the mall parking lot. We can let that go (eventually).
Or when we get into an argument with someone. Most of the time we can forgive pretty easily (but not always).
But how about when someone speaks words to us that tear a hole in our soul? Can we forgive them for that?
Or even worse, how about betrayal? Maybe the hardest thing to forgive of all. Someone you love betrays you. They shatter the trust that had been built in your relationship and stab you right in between the shoulder blades. And it crushes you.
That's not an easy thing to deal with. There are no nice platitudes that help. There are no easy VBS answers.
Just one thing we have to keep in mind: our own forgiveness depends on our willingness to forgive others. Even those who betray us.
And that is a powerful motivator. Especially since it has been done before. On the cross.
What are your thoughts on this scripture?
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Why does our forgiving others depend on whether we ourselves receive forgiveness from God? How can we ask God to forgive us while we are busy building our own kingdom against His. Every time I struggle with forgiveness of a perceived wrong against me, I am reminded of how I am still so tied to my own kingdom building vs. God’s kingdom. It is at that moment of instant insult of how I was treated rather than how does this effect God’s Kingdom. The greatest day in my life will be when I look at my Savior’s Face and worship my King in complete purity, never to struggle over kingdom living again! OH FOR THE DAY
ReplyDeleteI looked at this Scripture and it looks pretty black and white to me. I have no roblems forgivng others when I have been wronged or if I do something wrong to him or her. My biggest issue is forgiv myself. I sometimes feel stressed out, worried, and/or depressed whenver I do something wrong I beat myself up so much, it's sickening. I need help in the area of forgiving myself and I kind of wished that this passage would say something about how to feel the peace of God when you can't forgive yourself. That's my take.
ReplyDeleteI strive to be a more forgiving person and in this quest of life, I still step on toes. I've been told that unconsciously doing it is worse then consciously doing it. Like at least your aware that you are harming the next person to the point of a problem. Well maybe your like me and your the one who needs someone to forgive you for something! So on the reverse side, you still have to have a even better attitude and humbleness about yourself. Especially when you are still growing with the word of God. Forgiving people should be just a repetitive action, so for me I will work on me all around the board!
ReplyDeleteFor me, the key is to pray for the one(s) who I perceive as my enemies. Nothing heals my attitude faster. Jesus did it on the cross; Stephen did it as he was stoned to death.
ReplyDeleteJesus said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," Matt. 5:44
James 3 speaks to it also. "9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be."
How I would love to know that when I offend someone or sin against them, they would pray for me! The Good News is that Jesus already has: "Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing."