When you’ve been hurt, it is so easy to hold a grudge and vow never to forgive the person who wronged you. And when you’re reminded of that hurt, whether it be by person, place or thing, it can reaffirm your decision to hold onto the hurt. Sad as it is to say, people seem to enjoy holding onto those ill feelings.
Living in this day and age, with the high rate of divorce, hate crimes, acts of revenge and retaliation, forgiveness seems to be a very low priority. I’ll even admit I’ve not always been a forgiving person. I could hold a grudge with the best of them. I actually held a grudge against someone for almost 17 years. Within the last three months or so, I was finally able to let the grudge go. I know holding onto it blocked many blessings, and is probably a major factor in why my prayers in certain situations haven’t been answered. But then again, the answer that I haven’t gotten may actually be the answer to my prayers. I don’t know. However, my point is that no matter how many times someone hurts us, we must forgive them each time. In Matthew 18:22, Jesus tells Peter that we must forgive not just seven times, but seventy times seven.
Forgiving someone doesn’t make you weak. Instead it releases you. Letting go of that negativity makes you feel so much better, in more ways than one. But most importantly, if we expect God to forgive us (and we come at Him time and time and time again asking for forgiveness), we must forgive. (Matthew 18:23-35, Matthew 6:12, Luke 11:4)
So the next time someone hurts you, just remember that we hurt God on a daily basis by being disobedient to His will, but when we truly repent of our sins, He forgives us. If God can do it, why can’t we?
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