“In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Matt. 18:34-35.
Sometimes believers fail to realise how important forgiveness really is. Their lives are founded upon God’s forgiveness.
When they fail/refuse to forgive others, they are ripping the foundation from their lives and inviting the ‘tormentors’ of bitterness, sickness, disease and poverty into the front door of their lives.
Forgiveness, where deep offence has occurred, seems hard. And it is hard, because it strikes at the very place of hardness and pride.
Pride is a deception that makes a person think they have a position that they do not have. No one is in a place of not having to forgive any and all others. Refusing to forgive is an act of judgment without mercy. Yet no one wants God to take that attitude or disposition of judgment without mercy towards themselves.
Forgiveness is never about ‘feelings’ or ‘the right time’ which are often the invalid excuses that are made. ‘I don’t feel like forgiving.’ ‘It’s not the right time.’ These excuses are extremely dangerous to the spiritual and physical health of such an individual. Rom. 14:12 says each of us will give account of ourselves to God. What others have done, whether or not they are remorseful or not, and how they respond to the issue, is between them and God, not the offended one. Choose, today, to forgive and live well….