Forgiveness is a big subject. A church could teach on the subject of forgiveness every week and still be very relevant and applicable because not a day or week goes by that almost everyone of us are hurt, disappointed, let down, betrayed, etc… by someone else. Not a day or week goes by without each one of us hurting, disappointing, letting down, betraying or etc… others. There is no shortage of a need for forgiveness to be extended.
Someone has defined forgiveness as giving up the desire for a preferred past. That is an interesting way to look at life. “Giving up the desire for a preferred past.” We each have a desire in some ways for a preferred past. There are things that I wish I had never done. I have regrets about things that I did and how I know that I hurt God and hurt others. I also have regrets about things that happened to me at the hand of those I knew and that happened at the hands of those I didn’t know. I know that I have been forgiven by God and others and that I have forgiven others for wrongs. Even though I have regrets I don’t allow those regrets to consciously alter or impact my life today.
The power of forgiveness is that I don’t have to be controlled or impacted by the ways that I harmed others in my past and that I don’t have to allow anyone or any previous hurt to control or impact my present or my future. I am free because I have been forgiven by God and others and I am free because I have forgiven others.
It is difficult in the moment of pain and in the ‘wake’ of having been hurt to understand the power that can be released in a person’s life when they choose to receive God’s forgiveness and to forgive those who have hurt them. When a person is forgiven and forgives the power of the grace of God is released.
Someone else has said: To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was YOU.
Begin the process today – Choose to forgive. Become the prisoner that is set free by choosing and acting on that choice.
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