Forgive It or Forget It - Encouragement Café - December 7, 2015

Forgive It or Forget It

Café Menu for Monday, December 7, 2015

Today’s Special is:  Stop Allowing the Anchor of Unforgiveness to Weigh You Down

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Jamy Whitaker

Main Ingredient:

Forgive as the Lord forgave you

Colossians 3:13 NIV

Entrée:

One of my all-time favorite places on earth would have to be the beach.  To stand on the shoreline and just try to take in the vastness of it is overwhelming.  The same is true of God’s love.  When we go deeper into God’s love we find out that true peace in our lives comes only through forgiveness.

The Lord’s Prayer spells this out for us,

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Matthew 6:12

There is not one of us out there that doesn’t want God to forgive us.   In fact, when someone else hurts us, human nature tells us to not let go of it.  This is only on the surface, just like the ocean or God’s love.  We must go deeper to discover why forgiveness is necessary. 

One reason would be that Christ commands us to do so.  Just as Paul wrote, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:13

It does not say if you feel like it.  No, this scripture plainly commands us to forgive just as Christ had forgiven us.

Forgiveness is not for the other person, as much as it is for you.  If you choose not to forgive, you will eventually drown in a sea of bitterness and resentment.  This load you continue to carry is like an anchor tied around you as you are swimming through life.  It will simply wear you out. 

In addition, the bitterness will begin to take hold of other relationships in your life and they will begin to suffer.  It is necessary to cut loose of the anchor and forgive the other person.

Do not wait until you feel like forgiving.  Many times that feeling does not come.  I love what Kerry and Chris said in One Month to Live,

Someone once wisely observed that to forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover the prisoner was you (77). 

You hold the key.  This will not only set you free from your prison, but also allow God’s blessings to flow over you.

Take Out:

1. Make two lists. The first list is the people you need to forgive. The second is the people you need to ask forgiveness from. Now take the lists to God in prayer and ask for His help to forgive yourself as you also forgive others.

2. Write a letter to God expressing all of your hurts and anger. He already knows what is in your heart, but He longs to hear it from you. Then, go to Him in prayer.

3. Choose something that represents the ocean to you and put it in a place in your home that will serve as a visual reminder to you of God’s deep ocean of forgiveness for you and others.

Dessert:

Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you today with a heavy heart, the weight of the un-forgiveness hanging on me.  I pray that You would help me to let go of this burden that I have been carrying for far too long.  Remind me how much You love and care for me, as well as, how much I have been forgiven.  In Your Precious Name, Amen.

© 2015 by Jamy Whitaker.  All rights reserved.

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