Daring To Forgive Series

III. Being unforgiving costs you more than you want to pay

The loss of Christ’s forgiveness

Think about all of the things that you have done in your life that needed God’s forgiveness. In comparison, are the things you’ve not forgiven any worse than yours? You cannot live as a disciple of Jesus until you adopt a lifestyle of forgiveness. When you refuse to forgive, you make the choice to not be like Jesus.

There are situations in life that are extremely difficult. There are times when we have been hurt in ways that are horrific. Let me say, that I am not trying to minimize anything that you may have experienced. If you’re a new Christian, you may need to start with smaller issues and work you way to the larger ones.

Jesus does understand your pain and hurt because he has been there. Jesus was abandoned by his closest friends, murdered by the people He came to save and rejected by His followers even today.

The loss of Christ’s fellowship

It is absolutely impossible to have the relationship that god wants you to have with Him if you harbor unforgiveness. The longer you hold on to your hurt, the more it takes from you. You will need to let go and forgive to go to the nest step in your walk with God.

In the end, is it really worth it to be unforgiving?

Conclusion

In the church that I grew up in there were tasks for each of the Sunday School classes. The teen class had the distinction of ringing the church bell. It was one of those tasks that I loved doing. My friends and would ring that bell as loud and as long as we could. The one thing about that bell was the way it sounded through the steeple. When the rope was pulled, the bell would ding and then there would be the second strike sounding the dong. The more you pulled the rope; the more sound would come out of that bell and the longer in would ring. The more we would pull on the rope the longer it took for the sound to fade away.

The same is true of the hurts in your life. The longer that you dwell on them, the more effect they have in your life. It is not until you let go that the pain fades away. The more you pull at those hurts and the more that you relive them, the more hold they have on you.

Today can be a watershed moment for you – today you need to let go of the rope of your hurts. You need to let go of the pain that you carry. Those moments that you refuse to forgive will continue to haunt you until you let them go.