Wisdom Calls Out

Forgiveness is consistent with the nature of God. So if forgiveness is a part of the believer's life, how can I hold anything against someone else and say I am a follower of Jesus? Well you might say, "Well you don't understand what that person did to me." That's not even the issue. The issue is not how badly we have been treated; or how long we have been mistreated. The issue is what is consistent with God. What is consistent with His nature? Remember, the Lord Jesus Christ was not retaliating even from the cross; even as He was crucified by the ones who claimed to be His friends. No, His words were, "Father, forgive them."

Forgiveness is consistent with the very nature of God from whom we say we believe in. Many of you reading this devotional have learned how to really forgive others with sincerity, but many others have not. And people who do not no how to forgive suffer in terrible ways. He said to put away or banish all these vindictive ways from among you. He said we must deal with any form of bitterness within our lives. If I hold any bitterness in my heart then I am unforgiving.

How many of you have ever asked God to forgive you of some sin and you heard Him turn right around and ask you about it the next week? Never! God won't do it. When He forgives; He forgives as far as the East is from the West. Once it has been confessed it is forgiven and remembered no longer. It is forgotten. That does not mean that God does not know anything about it. But what He does mean is that He no longer holds us accountable for it. He no longer holds it against us. We are no longer obligated to Him for it. He has forgiven us unconditionally because of the blood of Jesus Christ who paid for our sins. Jesus went to the cross for our sins; past, present and future. Therefore, if He is willing to forgive in that fashion, then you and I as His followers should be willing to forgive as well? Look what this passage says.

Colossians 3:12-13 (KJV)
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

He says, "Who ever shall harm you, who ever hurts you" It does not make any difference who it is. It doesn't make a difference how long they do it. Our response is to be consistent with the nature of God and forgive. Over and over again it is the same story. We are to forgive unconditionally. We are to be forgiving to those who have wronged us.

Now, there are those that would ask, "Are there any exceptions? Well let me ask you this. Have you ever asked God to forgive you and He says, "I'll forgive you of everything you ever done except! No, God does not forgive like that. He forgives and releases our accountability to it. Now when you think about forgiveness and you think about how that all fits into who we are. I want you to hear me now, personally I have never had a legitimate reason for being unforgiving towards anybody. No matter what they have done. Period!

But you say, "What about the people who hurt you deeply, painfully? I mean they just go on non-stop as though it were their mission in life." Well, how many times have you sinned against God? We have sinned against Him over and over again and never have we heard Him say, "You do that one more time and that's it."

How many times did He say we were to be forgiving? Seventy times seven? Remember, His word said, "He is just to forgive those who ask." So why do so many people struggle with unforgiveness. Because they do not understand forgiveness. They don't understand what forgiveness is all about. Remember what we stated before? It is a deliberate willful act on my part of acknowledging a wrong that has been done to me; and releasing the other person from what they done.

It is the same thing that God has done for us a multitude of times. And I must express this emphatically here, it is a decision, it is not a feeling. Forgiveness is never to be based on a feeling or how you feel. You say, "Well I don't feel like forgiving them." That doesn't have anything to do with it. Feeling may be something I experience after I forgive you. But feeling has nothing to do with my forgiveness. Forgiveness is a deliberate willful act on my part of acknowledging a wrong that has been done to me; and releasing the other person from what they done.

I will no longer hold it against them and they will not owe me anything for repayment. Listen, they don't have to live up to anything. They don't have to measure up to anything. Listen, when God paid for your sin and mine, He paid it in full. We don't have to live up to anything or measure up to any requirement.

So therefore, the first reason we don't understand unforgiveness is that we don't understand, forgiveness.

The second reason we struggle with unforgiveness is because of pride. It says things like, "You did that to me and I'm not going to let you get away with it." It's pride! Pride says I can't afford to let you get away with wronging me. I assure you God has never said anything like that to me. Has He said that to you? It is our responsibility to be Christ-like and walk in forgiveness. It should be our deliberate and willful choice to forgive someone for a wrong unconditionally. Hands down.

You cannot control what or how another person may act. And they may never be your friend again. But it is your responsibility to forgive them just as God forgives you. But you don't know how I have been treated. Well my friend, I guarantee you that you can find someone else that has been treated much harsher than you have been treated.

Pride has become a major reason and a major cause of an unforgiving spirit. When we allow unforgiveness to stay in our hearts because we are unwilling to forgive the wrong. Then it festers until it becomes bitterness. My friend, bitterness is the major cause of an unforgiving spirit. This is why when we are wrong we should forgive immediately. Instantly. It doesn't matter what anybody has done to us. The time to deal with it is immediately. Because if left alone it will turn into bitterness.

Bitterness comes from a Greek word that means to pick; that is something sharp. My friends the human heart cannot keep something sharp within it very long before it causes bitterness to fester. Something sharp within our heart will cause much bleeding when we move about through life. And life will always have a way of bumping that sore area of your heart and it will just spill out everywhere at any moment. It is something that is going to spill over into other people's lives. It is something you cannot hide. You can't hide it from your countenance for very long either. Bitterness is a terrible sin and God says some very specific things about it. Because what it is; is an intensity of anger. It is hostility and resentment. There is a desire to be vindicated. A desire to take out vengeance on someone. Bitterness is a terrible sin.

Hebrews 12:14-15 (KJV)
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Bitterness is like a poison in the human body. It thinks constantly on how you have been mistreated. Look what it says, don't let any root of bitterness spring up in you. Bitterness troubles the one who is unforgiving and it defiles others in its wake. Have you ever been around someone who is bitter? When you get around them, there is something that is a bit sharp in their words or attitude.

Bitterness permeates, saturates and completely affects every part of that persons life, body, soul and spirit.

Bitterness affects us in this way. When it has been allowed to grow and corrode and rot underneath the surface of a person's life. Then without fail it will poison every area of that person's life and to those they are connected to. Our passage tells us that we are to act in grace towards others even should they be hard to accommodate and reason with. Don't fail to let the grace of God reach out to others with forgiveness no matter what they have done. Remember, it reached out to you.

To me bitterness is like a boomer-rang. Once you throw it at someone else it is eventually going to come back to you. See you can't spew out retaliation and vengeance towards another without it eventually making its way back in your direction. Because the Bible says whatever a man sows that is what he will reap. The person that feels the most pain from bitterness is the person who holds it in their heart. Many times someone apparently hurts us because they seem like so-and -so (but they are not really them), but because you have bitterness in your heart towards the one that did actually hurt you. You just let it all boil out on to this innocent person.

A bitter person is not satisfied until the person that wronged them has paid completely for their mistake. A lot of people are unhealthy emotionally due to their harboring of bitterness towards others. I believe this is what the apostle Paul was talking about when he taught the Corinthians concerning the Lord's supper, "Many are sick among you, even some have prematurely died because they did not properly discern the body of Christ. Friends I want you to hear this clearly, we are the people that belong to Him and therefore we are His body.

You can talk with counselors for years and years and never get a release until you finally let go of bitterness in your heart towards another person that you have been wronged by. A bird is not of the same nature as a fish. Their environments are totally different. You and I are of the very divine nature of God. Therefore, we ought to do what comes natural for Him. That which should be natural in us that have received His divine nature to forgive!

2 Peter 1:4 (NLT)
4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.