forgiveness

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Vansdad on July 5, 2015 at 10:13pm

Forgiveness is a blessing we give ourselves 

Permalink Reply by mary on July 29, 2015 at 1:44pm

I was shown just to touch the father farther forgive Jesus release Holyspirit heal ...does not mean we have to put ourselves back in the firing line ... Meet it all in prayer until god says otherwise

Permalink Reply by Tammy on July 30, 2015 at 1:38am

WHAT FORGIVENESS IS AND IS NOT

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13

To understand forgiveness we must realize what forgiveness is NOT:

· Forgiveness is not forgetting. Deep hurts can rarely be wiped out of one’s awareness.

· Forgiveness is not reconciliation. Reconciliation takes two persons, but an injured party can forgive an offender without reconciliation.

· Forgiveness is not condoning. Forgiveness does not necessarily excuse bad or hurtful behavior.

· Forgiveness is not dismissing. It involves taking the offense seriously, not passing it off as inconsequential or insignificant.

· Forgiveness is not a vague notion of ‘tolerance’. This is, at best, a low-grade parody of forgiveness. At worst, it’s a way of sweeping the real issues in life under the carpet.

· Forgiveness is not pardoning. A pardon is a legal transaction that releases an offender from the consequences of an action, such as a penalty.

Throughout the Old Testament we read that only God can forgive sins. We hear David exclaim, “He forgives all my sins…” (Psalm 103:3). We also see examples of human forgiveness—even in pain—like Joseph forgiving his brothers for selling him into slavery. Joseph gains true freedom. He then names his son Manasseh, “one who causes to be forgotten.”

In the New Testament we see Jesus, the Lamb of God, come into to the world to die for our sins. Through His shed blood we can once and for all receive ultimate forgiveness. This is the pure “gospel of grace.” This forgiveness is a gift. We do not deserve it but God, in His grace, reached out to provide forgiveness to a dying world.

Then we read in the verse above the impact of this on those of us who have received that forgiveness. Its ethical challenge parallels “love your enemies” and “pray for your persecutors.”

In the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in God’s hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy. I simply forgive others and leave them to God.

RESPONSE: Today I will leave fairness and justice in God’s hands. I will obediently forgive others just as the Lord forgave me.

PRAYER: Lord, grant me the faith to trust You with the offenses committed against me. I will forgive.

--Standing Strong Through The Storm  Open Doors

Permalink Reply by Christopher Kendall on July 30, 2015 at 6:42am

What I have found is to forgive is first forgive yourself, to free yourself 1. Become clear on your morals and values as they are right now.2. Realize that the past is the past.3. Create a “re-do.” never under estimate the power of thoughts 4. Realize you did the best you could at the time. then let it go 5. Start acting in accordance with your morals and values. How God sees you start to see your self as He sees you. 6. Identify your biggest regrets. It often helps to  categorize them according to the promise's of the word of God. 7. Tackle the big ones. There may be some regrets that don’t seem to improve, and they’re going to require some extra work. I call it “clearing your conscience.” 8. Turn the page. At some point, you have to accept that the past has happened and you’ve done everything in your power to amend past mistakes. It’s now time to turn the page and accept those events as part of your story. They've all contributed to making you who you are. Being grateful for those experiences allows you to move on and truly forgive yourself and others. 9. Move toward unconditional Love.   

Permalink Reply by Tammy on July 30, 2015 at 7:25am

This came this morning in my email & thought I'd share. 

FORGIVENESS IS FOR OURSELVES TOO Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12 Corrie ten Boom often thought back over the horrors of Ravensbruck prison camp and realized that it was hard to find forgiveness in her heart—the true Christian attitude for the former Nazis that would reveal through her the Spirit’s goodness. Where was love, acceptance, and forgiveness in a horror camp where allegedly more than 95,000 women died? How could she ever forget the horrible cruelty of the guards and the smoke constantly coming from the chimney of the crematorium? A few years later, Corrie was speaking in a church in Munich, and when the meeting was over she saw one of the cruelest male guards of Ravensbruck coming to speak to her. He had his hand outstretched. “I have become a Christian,” he explained. “I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, will you forgive me?” Conflict raged in Corrie’s heart. The good Spirit of God urged her to forgive. The spirit of bitterness and coldness urged her to turn away. “Jesus, help me. I can lift my hand. I can do that much.” As their hands met it was as if warmth and healing broke forth with tears and joy. “I forgive you, brother, with all my heart.” Later Corrie testified that “it was the power of the Holy Spirit” who had poured the love of God into her heart that day. Philip Yancey gives a pragmatic reason why we must forgive that seems very foundational: forgiveness alone can stop the cycle of blame, pain as well as vengeance and violence.The meaning of the New Testament word “forgiveness,” he says, is literally “to release, to hurl away, to free yourself.” The only way to break the chain or cycle of hurtfulness is to stop and ask forgiveness. This allows a relationship to start over and begin anew. The Russian writer, Solzhenitsyn, believed this forgiveness is what truly makes us different from animals. Only humans can perform that most unnatural act of forgiveness that transcends the relentless law of nature. The only thing harder than forgiveness is the alternative. A teacher once told each of her students to bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to school. For every person they refused to forgive in their life's experience, they chose a potato, wrote on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag. They were then told to carry this bag with them everywhere for one week, putting it beside their bed at night, on the car seat when driving, next to their desk at work. The hassle of lugging this around with them made it clear what a weight they were carrying spiritually, and how they had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget and keep leaving it in embarrassing places…Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person, and it clearly is for ourselves as well! RESPONSE: Today I will give myself the gift of forgiveness. Is there someone I need to forgive? PRAYER: Father, I pray today for the power of Your Holy Spirit to enable me to release any cycles of hurtfulness in my life by forgiving others. OPEN DOORS - STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM

Permalink Reply by Seek on July 30, 2015 at 9:16pm

After forgiving an man who, as a Nazi soldier years earlier, had abused and tortured her and her sister, who ultimately died there, Corrie Ten Boom wondered why she continued having thoughts of a wrong done to her by a couple in church. She said:

You would have thought that, having forgiven the Nazi guard, this would have been child’s play. It wasn’t. For weeks I seethed inside. But at last I asked God again to work His miracle in me. And again it happened: first the cold-blooded decision, then the flood of joy and peace.

I had forgiven my friends; I was restored to my Father.

Then, why was I suddenly awake in the middle of the night, hashing over the whole affair again? My friends! I thought. People I loved! If it had been strangers, I wouldn’t have minded so.

I sat up and switched on the light. “Father, I thought it was all forgiven! Please help me do it!”

But the next night I woke up again. They’d talked so sweetly too! Never a hint of what they were planning. “Father!” I cried in alarm. “Help me!”

His help came in the form of a kindly Lutheran pastor to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks.

“Up in that church tower,” he said, nodding out the window, “is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging. First ding then dong. Slower and slower until there’s a final dong and it stops.

“I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive someone, we take our hand off the rope. But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn’t be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.”