Forgiveness

Colossians 3:12-13 ESV

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

Why is forgiveness in some cases so difficult, but in others, it seems relatively easy? The easy forgiveness is the easiest to cover, it’s easy because we are ready to forgive. The difficult forgiveness is because people have hurt us deeply, and we can’t move beyond the pain. I have observed a peculiar phenomenon: even though we cannot forgive the person or the incident that caused the separation, most people we have not forgiven are not thinking about us or what they did to us. So, the un-forgiveness is just affecting us most of the time. I have had a lot of hurts throughout the years, and the worst ones involve the people we are close to. Those hurts are difficult, they hurt deeply, and they leave scars that we remember forever, so forgiving is difficult. The last part of this verse always straightens out my path with un-forgiveness, “…forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you…” I have found one secret in forgiving, if I do not rehearse the matter over and over again in my mind, it makes the matter easier to forgive, and the person easier to forgive.

Prayer:

Lord, You have commanded us to forgive. When you taught Your disciples how to pray, You said in Your prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as (just like) we forgive those who trespass against us. As we forgive, You forgive us. In Your name Lord Jesus we ask, Amen!