September 18, 2013

Forgiveness Part 7: Always For You.

Okay, so let's draw this to a close, shall we? Yes, you are thinking...please. Enough already. Okay, let me boil this whole thing down for you and end with the following thoughts from Chip Ingram...

You forgive someone and keep forgiving him/her until he/she is forgiven. Got it?

Forgive.
You have to come to a point in time when you decide to be intentional about your forgiveness. You honestly evaluate what someone owes you; because, let’s be honest, if you have been hurt and wounded, someone stole something from you. You write out the offense or talk to the person in your head. Have an imaginary conversation. Get it all out. Then, decide from that moment on that you will release the person to God to handle and you will not dwell on the situation or demand anything in return.

Forgiving.
You will have to remind yourself that you have cancelled the debt millions of times throughout the ensuing days. Forgiveness is a process. It starts with the intellect and slowly infiltrates the emotions. You have to be disciplined. Anytime the feelings come back, and they will, trust me, you tell yourself you have cancelled the debt. Pray for the person (really hard) and move on with your day, living in the moment. Do not panic if your hurt emotions (or angry emotions) do not go away for weeks, months, or years. Just ignore them. Preach the Gospel to them and move on.
Forgiven.
Ultimately, maybe years down the road, you will find that when the person or the situation that hurt you is mentioned, you don’t respond emotionally. That means the forgiveness process is complete. Hallelujah! Praise God for walking you through the process and get ready to be used by Him to walk others through it.

Remember, forgiveness is always for you, not for the other person.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. I would love your feedback about what God did in your life. Praying for you!

No comments:

Post a Comment