Forgiving us is the greatest thing God has ever done for us. He forgave all our sins when we believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Possibly the most important thing He has instructed us to do in …
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Forgiving us is the greatest thing God has ever done for us. He forgave all our sins when we believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Possibly the most important thing He has instructed us to do in living for Him is to forgive others. In the “Lord’s Prayer,” where Jesus taught us how to pray, He included “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
He is not just teaching us to forgive those who have already sinned against us; He was teaching us to practice forgiveness as people continue to “trespass against us.” We must do so for our prayers to be heard!
Jesus in fact said failure to forgive is a reason God will not hear our prayer. (Matthew 6:15; Mark 11:25)
Offenses have been committed against you that are hard for you to forgive. They may have happened long ago or they may have happened today. The time when any harm against you occurred does not matter. There is only one way to deal with it. That is FORGIVE! Time will never heal the harm. Only forgiveness is the healing balm.
The intensity of the offense does not matter! Whether it was egregious or slight, the response from you must be the same - total forgiveness.
Failure to forgive will disrupt your relationship with God. Failure to forgive will disrupt your personal peace of mind and spirit. Failure to forgive will affect your emotions and your personal relationships.
Knowing all this, Jesus taught us to practice forgiveness.
You do not wait for the offender to ask you for forgiveness. You recognize the purpose of God in teaching us to forgive is to bless and benefit us. Yes, on the human level, the person who will benefit the most in this great life walk of forgiving is the one who forgives not the one who is forgiven.
Remember this because someone will offend you. Now you know what to do when that happens.
www.firstagop.org. Write PastorBill@firstagop.org.