Chose to Forgive
By Pastor Karen Adams
Our Christian life will be strengthened and character built when we chose to do things God’s way. The world doesn’t understand how to forgive. Their approach is “an eye for an eye”. No wonder so many people are spiritually blind. We have plucked one another’s eyes out to the point of spiritual blindness. God has a supernatural way to deal with offenses, hurts, and sin. It’s what His Son demonstrated on the cross when He said “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do”.
As Christians, our character should be one of forgiveness. The bible tells us that “freely you have received, freely give”. Yet we see in Christian believers so many times the struggle in the area of forgiving others. Years ago when Brian first told me he was writing a book about forgiveness, I remember asking him, “Why would you write a book on forgiveness? Everyone knows you have to forgive.” Little did I realize how ignorant I was to make such a statement. As months past after the publication of his book, The Power of Forgiveness, calls came in day after day. I overheard time and time again people that had been Christians for years that didn’t know how or even if they could ever forgive people that had hurt them or done them wrong. Watching the power of God come and set people free just by releasing and forgiving others that have hurt or sinned against them was life changing. The circumstances each caller found themselves in was all different but the common denominator was one thing – unforgiveness.
I love the fact that even as I am typing right now on my computer the “red squiggly line” underlines the word unforgiveness. The word unforgiveness is not recognized as a word. When I go back to see why the computer gives me this alert, I see that it also gives me options to correct the problem. I can choose to ignore the word, add it to my dictionary or replace it with another word. If I ignore it, the word unforgiveness remains. If I add it to my dictionary, I now can use the word over and over again in any sentence that I type and it will not correct me again. That’s what many do. We know that as Christians we are not supposed to walk in unforgiveness but we keep it in our heart and carry on with life. After a period of time our hearts add the unforgiveness to the dictionary of our hearts. So we continue in unforgiveness allowing the enemy access to our souls. What if we would chose to replace the word unforgiveness with what even a computer that has no heart suggests? Forgiveness. The computer will not make the correction for me. I have to choose to forgive.
Make the choice today. CHOSE TO FORGIVE. Forgiveness cannot change your past and events that have happened in your life but it can sure change your future.
- Date - October 24, 2018
- Author - Karen Adams
