FORGIVENESS

I spoke to a friend about forgiveness yesterday. This person had a problem with forgiving someone who doesn't want it, or God and, because of the grievous nature of the offences committed against the person, there was a desire to, but difficulty in, forgiving.

In short I told my friend the following. FORGIVENESS:

1. is a gift from God for He has forgiven us. We are expected to use His gift for others.

2. does not condone an offence but recognizes it and releases it.

3. does not change the life of the offender when the offender rejects the forgiveness

4. removes the self guilt of hanging onto something painful when God does not want us to hang on to it.

5. is turning over the pain of the offence to God who takes it from us and destroys it.

6. keeps us in the will of God by forgiving others their offences to us and thus brings us the peace o God in our lives

There is one final point I will soon mention to my friend. The most important person to forgive is oneself. Let the pains of the past, and new ones as they occur, be released from your spirit for those pains have no place in the spirit of a child of God.

Blessings, Rev. Tom