10 Guidelines to Forgive

Letting Go and Letting God!

Hi friends,

Hope you are doing fine. This week I would like to share something the Lord has been teaching me. Whether we like to admit it or not, it is something we all need. It is about the Power of Forgiveness. All of us go through different difficult things in life at various points in our life. One of them is we deal with people who may hurt us ,misunderstand us, speak bad about us or even betray our trust. This can be very painful and though we know the right thing to do is "Forgive" yet its easier said than done! However, these are the Last Days and the Lord has been teaching me how we need to understand to tackle this better lest the enemy take advantage of us.

 First of all, Forgiveness is not immediately forgetting everything. Its never as simple as turning a switch on and off. True forgiveness can never be running back to the person who hurt you and acting as if nothing happened. Whatever happened, happened  for a reason and the pain was real. Some lessons were learnt and some boundaries need to be drawn. In some cases, Forgiveness may take time. It can not happen at once. It is a process. It is a decision of the heart. The main thing to remember though is that nothing happens in the life of a child of God without the Lord’s permission. So no matter what we go through , we can rest assured that He is teaching us something through it and that He will see us through. Sharing below 10 guidelines that the Lord has taught me and I share it with you praying it may bless you too!  :

1)Allow yourself to feel the emotion - “Be angry [at sin—at immorality, at injustice, at ungodly behavior], yet do not sin; do not let your anger [cause you shame, nor allow it to] last until the sun goes down.” Eph 4:26 - This means that the emotion of anger in itself is not wrong but allowing it to fester is where it becomes sin. We see in Mathew 21:12,13 that even Jesus ,the Perfect, sinless Son of God got angry when he saw how the people had defiled the House of God and made it into a den of thieves. So the lesson here is that we need to process our anger in His Presence, talk to Him about the hurt, the injustice, the unfairness or anything else going on in your mind and heart and He will give us the grace to overcome.

 2)     Feelings may change but we must stick to the decision to forgive- This is essential for our own peace in the Lord. When we continue to submit the situation at the Lord’s feet and go by the Spirit, the soul (mind, will, emotions) and the body will slowly align to the Spirit. This is true for any feeling that we may go through because Jesus Himself said in Mathew 26:41 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

 3)     Unforgiveness is a Spirit and so if we wallow in unforgiveness and bitterness , it will lead to an open door for the enemy to come in and trouble us. So, we must recognize the dangers of allowing unforgiving thoughts from residing in our hearts and minds. Keep short accounts with the Lord. Rush back to Him and ask Him to cleanse you from any unforgiveness or bitterness that may creep in. Get back to the Word and allow the verses to wash over you. Pray to the Lord and let your tears do the cleaning of your heart. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

 4)     Remember that we battle not against flesh and blood, in the spirit realm, there is always a bigger picture. When the Lord showed me what the enemy is really after is my relationship with Him; I realized that this battle was not worth it at all. What was at stake was much, much more and we cannot afford to grieve the Holy Spirit at any cost. We all know that we will not be able to pray effectively with unforgiveness in our heart. (Mathew 5:23,24) We need to love ourself enough to Let Go and Let God.

 5)     The Lord commands us to forgive. We read in the portion after the Lord’s Prayer (Mathew 6: 14-15) “ that if we forgive men their trespasses against us, our Heavenly Father will also forgive us but if we do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will our Father forgive our trespasses.” The Lord longs to bless us and prosper us , His children but sometimes Unforgiveness can rob us of our Destiny and Prosperity. Just remember Joseph who was wronged by his brothers. Had he remained bitter for all they had done to him, God could not have promoted him. Sometimes the Lord allows such things to happen to us especially when He has a bigger calling in our life. So let us believe in His goodness and just obey Him because we love Him more than our feelings.

 6)     Jesus is the Only Perfect One and so He alone is the Righteous Judge. All of us are far from perfect and we all have our limitations and shortcomings. He is continuously sanctifying us, and the process will go on until we are glorified. Jesus the Perfect Lamb of God is interceding at the right-hand side of the Father for us and so should we. Luke 6:27-28 says: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”

 7)     One thing that I have learnt is that ultimately whether we are in the right or in the wrong really doesn’t matter when it comes to forgiveness. If we wait for the other party to realize your side of the story, in some cases, we will wait forever. In the cases where both parties are humble enough to apologize, reconciliation is possible. However, sometimes we just have to forgive , surrender the person into the Lord’s hands and move on with our life. Romans 12:18 “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”

 8)   When you can forgive, forgive. When you can’t, pray for  the person. We can follow the Lord’s perfect example on the Cross when He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”- Luke 23:34 God will do a miracle for us if we keep praying for the true salvation and blessing of that person.

9)     It is impossible to please all the people all of the time. Even Jesus never tried to do that, then why should we fall into that trap?  Infact , James 4:4 calls such people pleasers as “Unfaithful” and continues…. “Don’t you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? If you want to be the world's friend, you make yourself God's enemy.” There are a few people God has called us to influence and bless their lives with our lives and be blessed by them too. We need to focus on loving those people and ensure that we do as much as is possible to live at peace with the rest of the world. There ends our responsibility.

10) Give the person to GOD. 

Just now the Lord put in my mind the word FORGIVE – FOR I GIVE this person to You Lord. You are teaching me something through this situation. Though its painful and I cannot understand, yet Lord, I trust in YOUR infinite wisdom and Goodness. You are my Master, My Shepherd and I rest at Your feet trusting You Lord.

Your Word says in Romans 8:28 “ And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.”

I’d like to conclude this post by reminding you that Nothing is ever wasted in the Kingdom of God. We see in the life of Joseph that though for a while nothing made sense to him; there was a Divine Orchestration in it all from the  Pit to  the Prison and then the Palace. Trust that as long as you are One who loves God, tries your best and forgives from your heart, God can turn around any situation into an advantage and we can say like Joseph says in Gen 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”

So today let’s take the decision to take a step and forgive even when its difficult. The Lord will be pleased with us & will reward us in His perfect timing. “ So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.” Gal 6:9-10

Sharing a song on Forgiveness by Matthew West : This Song beautifully captures the diffrent aspects of all the emotions we come across when we choose to FORGIVE. Do take a few minutes to listen, it may change your life!

https://youtu.be/oIbCpy0CQEo?si=ukf2B3zaZaGfNlSU

Love and prayers,

Have a blessed week!

Sparky laurie