Forgiveness

Just for the sake of props. I got most of this material from a powerful sermon preached by my pastor about a month ago. Check him out at FCFtrussville.com

Forgiveness is between you and God.

If someone hurts you/wrongs you, forgiveness is letting them off the hook with God.

There are times when one needs to approach a person about wrongs either done to you or by you and forgiveness can be sought or offered in an attempt to inform of your awareness of the wrong and to try to mend the damage to your relationship if possible.....BUT this does not change the fact that forgiveness IS ultimately between you and God.

This is useful to understand. This means that feelings do not determine whether or not you are willing to forgive or even if you have chosen to forgive the person for the offense in the past. When feelings come to the surface, it simply gives us another opportunity to reiterate our decision to ask God to forgive them. Emotions that we allow to detour our willingness to choose a forgiving attitude are the only ones that influence our relationship with Christ. How do we know when we have an attitude of unforgiveness and are not just struggling with emotions? Some clues are how do we interact with those people? Do we do or say things that are actually geared toward making them "pay" for what they did to us, or are we genuinely at least trying to interact with them in a way that is characteristic of love? We don't have to like someone to love them. Loving is about treating someone as you would want to be treated, and most of all, loving is about treating someone as Christ would treat them. Forgiveness is a process that sets everyone free, especially the one who is doing the forgiving.

May God grant us the grace to see His awe inspiring example with painful clarity and the humility and gratefulness to imitate it when while hanging on the cross He cried, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."