Monday, May 6, 2013

Forgive


Ephesians 4:31-32


31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.



People are human and they sin. Their sin against us can hurt us in many different ways. Whether a person's sin against us is sexual, physical, emotional/psycholoical, spiritual, financial, or in some other area it effects our relationship with them. We don't want to be around them.  We don't care about them.  We don't care about what they need.  We don't have any respect for them. We are malicious in our gossip about them to others. We become critical and judgmental.

We become bitter and resentful. Sometimes we become full of hatred towards them and even entertain the thought of wanting to kill them or at least desire for them to experience the same kind of sin we experienced so they can hurt like we do.

Our relationships with others are affected as well.  Sometimes in a similar way as it was with the person who originally hurt or sinned against us.


We don't forgive because we feel justified in our feelings against them. And justified we are.

We sin against God. God is justified in his judgment or anger against us. But God is a forgiving God. He wants us to be forgiven. That is why He had His Son the Lord Jesus Christ pay for our sins on the cross and rose Him from the dead so we could be forgiven if we accept what Jesus did for us, and receive Him into our hearts.

As God has forgiven us He wants us to forgive those who have sinned against us.

God wants us to be kind towards one another, tenderhearted, and forgiving. If we don't forgive those who have done us wrong then we will walk in vs 31. If we forgive those who have done us wrong then we will walk in vs 32 because when we forgive God  heals our wounded spirit and set us free to love others.

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