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"And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors."
(Matthew 6:12)
Bear with me on this topic of forgiveness. It is such a deep subject, and I have not yet discovered all the meaning latent in this one word: forgive. I have been thinking a lot about the topic of forgiveness this holiday season. I have written and preached on this grand topic and want to explore it some more with you this week in our devotions. Perhaps, I keep bringing it up because someone reading needs to take this huge step in their walk with God and be set free from the bitterness and captivity that comes when we choose to not forgive those who have hurt us.
"Those who have hurt us" -- Those are easy words to type, but oh, they are so filled with emotion for each of us. I could never understand the depths of pain and heartache that some of you reading this have experienced. The abuse, broken promises, disappointments, well, they are utterly heartbreaking. I don't pretend to understand, or even empathize with you because I simply cannot. I have not been hurt or wounded in the same ways that many of you have. However, I humbly offer help, hope, and healing in what I will write this week in these devotionals.
2020 has been quite the year, and no doub, whenever there is so much upheaval, there has surely been much offense. Maybe you have been especially offended this year, or perhaps you have offended someone else. This year, I have experienced both. I have offended and been offended. The latter always hurts, particularly when you are disappointed by those you love. Like many of you reading this today, I went through the gamut of emotions and temptations that everyone does when they have been hurt. C.S. Lewis said, "Anger is the fluid that love bleeds when you cut it."
I did, however, come around to the right response, which is to forgive. Whether the person asks for forgiveness or not, it does not matter; the only viable option to choose when you have been hurt, wounded, criticized, judged, etc. is to forgive. I have learned that when I harbor resentment and unforgiveness, I am only hurting myself. Jordan Rivers forgive, but Dead Seas do not. I want to be more like the Jordan River in Israel, a body of water that freely receives waters from the mountain ranges in the north, then deposits waters in the south. The Dead Sea, on the other hand, only receives and never gives, thereby creating a salty, mineral-saturated body of water with no outlet and no life.
More tomorrow... but let me close with this: in your forgiveness, which body of water in Israel do you most resemble? Are you a Jordan River or a Dead Sea?
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