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Remember Who Forgave You
Contributed by Gregory Thomas on Mar 16, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: Our Future in Christ relies on our ability to forgive. Forgiveness is a very critical element in our christian walk.
Future In Forgiveness
Collosians 3: 12,13
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrelb against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
In this devotional it is my goal to help us find it within ourselves to forgive those whom have trespassed against us for whatever cause.
It has come to my attention that Unforgiveness has stifled many us in many different ways and has become likened unto a cancer killing the spirit slowly. The Spirit is nothing more than: 1) Attitude 2) Mood and 3) Response.
I can recall the days of my Infancy In Christ when I first surrendered my life to him, it was such an easy thing to forgive people but as I grew the devil began to fight that very component because he understood that if he could keep me in a place of unforgiveness he could prohibit me from reaching my full potential.
Forgive in the Greek means to send away, so it is without question that God requires us to forgive people and send away their faults or errors unto him.
It is not God’s will that you not carry your past hurts into your future. So he tells us in Ephesians 4:32 to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
You don’t have go to anyone face to face to get forgiveness if they’re not asking to be forgiven. But if they ask Jesus says in Luke 17: 3,4 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. 4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him
Jesus taught us how to live a life pleasing to him by precept and example and thus requires forgiveness that the father in heaven may forgive us, Paul asserts in Colossians 3:13 That we must be merciful and forgiving to one another, because of our quarrels is what Christ forgave us for, therefore, we must be merciful and forgive one another.
We must understand, however, though we forgive there are certain people that we must learn to set boundaries for to keep them from hurting us because they don’t want what we want.