Many people talk about the power of forgiveness but I wanted to focus on what UnForgiveness does to you and your heart. Don’t be in the bondage of UnForgiveness. It will not only eat you alive but God will not forgive you if you have it in your soul.
Matthew 6:15 – But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
God is very clear on that. There are many things in life that aren’t so clear but this verse makes it very clear that our hearts need to be cleared of unforgiveness. I like what T.D. Jakes said “Unchecked UnForgiveness is a cancer to your soul. Where it starts it doesn’t stay and it spreads everywhere”.
Is that not a powerful quote and so true? Many people say I will not forgive that person but what they do not realize is that will effect how you relate to other people. It will effect how you interact with your kids. It will effect how you act towards your husband or your wife. It will effect every relationship you have.
Not one of us is strong enough to have unforgiveness in our hearts and have it not carry over to every area of our lives. It is impossible. Keeping a grudge kills your spirit. It kills your creativity. It kills your drive. It kills any relationship you may have.
If you have unforgiveness in your heart, you will start to become isolated and withdrawn from everything in life. At first you may withdraw slowly but over time it will eat you alive the way cancer eats your cells.
You can’t put enough good in you to overpower unforgiveness. You can read all the PMA books all you want. You can go to every seminar on positive mental attitude all you want. You can bring people into your life to pour into you all you want but until you bring your heart to forgive your past you will not grow spiritually, mentally & emotionally to the level God wants you to grow.
You may say that you can’t forgive this person but God says all things are possible through Christ. You may say but I can’t forget it. God isn’t asking you to forget it because he knows that you can’t do that. Once something is in our brain, it is there for life.
You may say but this person doesn’t deserve my forgiveness. God doesn’t expect you to forgive someone because they deserve it, he expects you to do it because YOU deserve it.
You deserve better than the life you are leading. Have you realized that all this time that you hold this grudge it is killing you but the person you are holding it against is just living their life as normal? Why let them control the space in your mind? You have to take full control over your future and you can only start to do that when you forgive the person that harmed you. Once you do that, the healing process can start to take place.
What if you haven’t forgiven yourself because of the things you have done in the past? This is probably the hardest forgiveness that we must overcome. This too will destroy you because you will never allow yourself to do anything as you don’t trust yourself.
So what do you do? How do you start this process? First ask God to help you find even an ounce of unforgiveness. Ask him to cleanse your heart so that you can have the power to forgive. Ask him to give you the strength and courage to forgive every person you are holding on to including yourself.
Once you start to do that, you may find that you have to go to the person if they are still around to say you forgive them. Only you and God will know if this is something that you need to do. If God wants you to repair a relationship which he may then you need to listen to him on that. No excuses. Excuses are OVER! All your life you have made excuses and as Dr. Phil says “How’s that working for you?”
Ask God to give you the guidance from this point to do what he is calling you to do. You might just find your purpose after you have cleared your heart. God may be ready to take you to your purpose! In order for God to take you to your next, you have to deal with the issues of NOW.
Be Inspired or Be Left Behind!
Chris Benton