Forgiveness is a Trait we need to Practice Every Day—R Fritz
Forgiveness is about us forgetting what somebody has done against us. This involves our heart and our feelings because we have been offended. Many times, the offender is not aware they have done something to offend us. People do not understand or do not care that words affect people and hurt feelings. Sometimes opinions mean more to people than friendship. It still comes down to us to forgiving. Matthew 6:14-15 says, and this is Jesus speaking “For if ye forgive men their trespasses (offenses), your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” We are to forgive and forget the offense that was done against us. I have had people tell me they can forgive but they cannot forget. If you cannot forget we have not completely forgiven either. I say that because of what happened to me before I retired. When you must work with somebody that we have forgiven but we have a problem with trusting them, that is not forgetting what they have done. You eventually start to trust them after having to work with them closely and forget what they have done, it is a trust issue and that is when we have truly forgiven them.
This is where we see if we are surrendered where we ponder on if what we think about should be said and decide it does not have to be said. It is always listening to the Holy Spirit and to not let our feelings overpower the Holy Spirit. Words heard long enough are believed or produce anger. If we say something that when we look at somebody, we know the spoken words we said did not agree with them, we need to apologize. When we see we have offended somebody we should immediately apologize, that is respect for that person. When we do not apologize pride wants to set in and we start to blame the other person. We start to believe either we did nothing wrong, or it was not our fault. The Holy Spirit knows what was said or done and we should ask if we did the right thing today. The Holy Spirit will let us know what needs to be done. It is a heart issue that needs to be taken care of. Proverbs 16:5 says, “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination (detestable) to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.” The Lord is going to punish the proud in heart and love the heart that changes to humble. This is where we need to check our heart every day to see if we are in line with the love of the Holy Spirit.
We need to check our heart every day because spirits, pride being one of them, are waiting for an opportunity to sneak into our lives and invade our thoughts without us knowing it. Satan knows how to subtly use our feelings, especially anger to let us believe we know what is best, forgetting or leaving God out of situations. When we leave God out of our decisions Satan has us where he wants us, fighting in the flesh. A place where we lose because our power is in the Spirit because Satan knows that and gets us to take our focus off God. Our prayers change our focus with us believing God will change our situation. If we do not trust or believe God will answer our prayers, we need to find somebody who can pray for us until we gain our belief in God.
What I have learned is people sometimes cause problems for us or are our worst enemy but also other people put us back on track with positive speech or just their presence in our life, it could be their personality, but we feel better. We must all know people like that. The people with issues that are looking for help, people that are put in our lives for a reason by God, are put in our care to show God’s love. These people God brings to us to help or change their outlook on life as well as to be the hope until they know the real hope in the name of Jesus. I was one of those people who was looking for Jesus because my life was not going well over twenty years ago. I ran into people who could help me along the way, they were sent by God. I battled through spiritual issues to become that same help for other people who are battling issues with God helping many people. We never know who somebody will become because we listened to the Holy Spirit and freed people from an unhappy life or people who were destined to die, yes, I had people who were in the hospital looking like they could die, people that heard the words I spoke to walk out of the hospital, words given to me and spoken to me by the Holy Spirit yet these words changed the situation almost immediately. That is the Holy Spirit that lives in us.
We do not know the people God has sent for us to help. We are too busy with our lives, when we slow down at every stop we make and look at the people who need us and listen, we will start to see what God has in store for us. Sometimes these people will give us something we are looking for in life, sometimes even a message from God. I have seen people who barely knew Jesus give me a message that I knew came from God. We can say we do not want to get involved with people but then we are saying we do not want to give the good news to whom God puts in our lives.
People are people and driven by their thoughts. Because of that and not taking their thoughts in captivity they say things that can offend us or say things that are not true. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” Every thought must come into captivity of Jesus, thoughts that are not righteous should not be spoken. Even though these people were sent to us for a purpose we sometimes must explain what was said was wrong and move on with what God has for us or them. The question I tell people as well as myself is I will refuse to mess up God’s work but that does not mean other people will let their feelings get involved to let their will be done not God’s. Matthew 6:9-10 says, and this is Jesus speaking “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallo be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” We need to remember that the Lord’s prayer says, “thy will be done.” That is referring to the Father, God’s will.
Forgiveness is very important to God because it takes us away from his love. It is a stumbling block to getting closer to Jesus. Forgiveness is a choice that when the Holy Spirit shows us, we need to do something to change our hearts. I pray the Lord’s prayer for all having trouble in forgiving past offenses. God Bless.
