Unforgiveness?

Someone once said that unforgiveness is like taking poison in hopes the other person will die. Problem is unforgiving is so subtle that most of us don't realize we are. That we are unforgiving. Unforgiving? What does that mean for most of us? Since we don't realize we are not forgiving when we are unforgiving.

For most of us it's when we don't like to be around a certain person anymore. For others it's when we feel uncomfortable when that certain person walks in the room. But, sometimes we justify it. We just aren't going to forget.

Unforgiveness!

Webster says forgiving is to cease to FEEL resentment against an offender. It doesn't stop there, it goes on say that forgiveness is to pardon. Further, it says forgiveness is to GIVE UP RESENTMENT for an offense or wrong that has been done to you, to cease to claim exaction for the debt owed you.

So UNFORGIVENESS would be to hold on to feelings of resentment, to refuse to pardon the offender and not to give up the resentment against the one who has offended you. Worst of all, you intend to make that person pay until you are satisfied.

UNFORGIVENESS. By the way, the word 'unforgiveness' wasn't even in the dictionary I used.

To many, perhaps most, unforgiveness is not a big deal, it's a way of life.

Unforgiveness.

So what! Just get on with life. Life? No, life stops as long as unforgiveness rules our hearts. It's so subtle. That person owes us! We have a right to exact SOMETHING for our pain, grief or trouble, right?

Problem is we get more than we bargain for when we refuse to forgive. We take the poison but the offender lives and we die. We die a slow miserable death. Infection. Everything in our life soon becomes infected, sour and bitter.

The biggest problem is that we can't put our finger on the root cause as time slowly rolls on. Everything gets so confusing that we lose track of what went wrong and when.

Unforgiveness stops life. Then we just exist.

That's why Jesus taught us to pray, "and forgive those who owe you a debt, so your heavenly Father can forgive you the debts you owe Him." If we hold on to our unforgiveness in any way, we hold our own sins within and slowly die a bitter death.

On the other hand, it’s like the famous rescuer of Jews during World War 2, Corrie Ten Boon, when she came face to face with her sisters executioner. She saw him come down the isle in a church 40 years later, she recognized him and said, “God I can NOT forgive that man” . Then she heard Jesus in her spirit say to her, "No, you can not, but I can - will you let me forgive that man through you?" Corrie said yes and was set free to be all she was meant to be without the resentment and pain. Her forgiveness for his offenses set HER free.

What's deceived you and me into holding on to our UNFORGIVENESS? Lets let go and let Jesus forgive THROUGH us and find the life He came to give us. Without forgiving we can not be forgiven by God Himself. He said so.

So...

THINK ABOUT IT!