Christian Atheist: Forgiveness Series

#4 Continue by praying for them

I firmly believe forgiveness is a matter of prayer. An important ingredient in forgiving someone is prayer in which we honestly pray for the other person. Now these are not prayers of “I pray they get hit by a truck,” but rather honest simple prayers for their well-being. You can pray:

“God please work in their life”

“God please help us mend our relationship”

“God please bless the work of their hands”

#5 Decide to forgive

At some point, a decision needs to be made. In Ephesians 4:31 when it says, “get rid” I read into that a personal decision is made. You and I must move from recognizing our unforgiveness, giving up our sinful rights, and praying about forgiveness to actually forgiving. Forgiveness is a decision. We must decide…

… not to seek revenge

… not to allow bitterness to rule us

… not to be angry when we see them or hear their name

… not to argue and fight over the issue

… not to disparage their name or reputation when they are mentioned

… to let it go

#6 Work on forgiveness as a permanent state of your heart

I believe that once you have made the decision to forgive someone, that this is an active decision. What I mean by “active decision” is that this is a decision of the will that must be kept up. If we get lax in our willingness to forgive, we may let resentment creep back into our lives. Forgiveness is a decision that must be a constant state of who we are and we must be vigilant against falling back into unforgiveness.

APPLICATION

I want to invite you today to begin the process of forgiveness by starting with #1. Would you examine yourself this morning and try and recognize if you have unforgiveness in your heart. Are you dealing with bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, or malice?

I am going to do something different today because I want us to honestly move towards forgiveness. I also want to invite you to do something else today if you feel it would help you break free from unforgiveness. If you have someone to forgive, I would like you to come up front this morning and just sit in the front pews. I am not going to ask you to say anything or confess anything, but when the song is over, I’d like to pray a special prayer over you as we move on from today.

CONCLUSION