Forgive
2020-04-26Mark 11:25 NIV
When someone hurts us, our natural response is to either hurt them back or hope they will suffer for what they’ve done. But as children of God who have been forgiven and saved, we know this is the wrong response. Forgiving someone doesn’t come naturally or easily; it requires supernatural grace on our part. And we get that through prayer. Jesus said, ‘When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’ When we remember how God has shown grace toward us, we realise that we need to show that same grace to those who have hurt us. Sometimes we can feel that we have a right to hold on to unforgiveness, or that if we forgive people we’re letting them get away with what they did to us. But actually if we don’t forgive people, we’re keeping ourselves tied to the hurt and the person who caused it. Bitterness and unforgiveness actually hurt us more in the long run. And the people who have hurt us will be judged by God. He calls us to forgive people, just as He has forgiven us. Jesus told a story about a servant who couldn’t pay his debt. He begged his master to take the debt away, and he did. But then someone owed that servant money, and he refused to take their debt away (you can read this story in Matthew 18). The servant had been shown kindness and grace, but refused to show the same kindness and grace to the person who owed him money. And the same is true when we don’t forgive people. So, before we go to God, let’s make sure we’ve shown the same grace to those who have hurt us as He’s shown to us.