Total Forgiveness.

TOTAL FORGIVENESS.

1 SAMUEL 24: 9-13.

LUKE 23:34.

EPHESIANS 4:32.

In the daily newspaper there was an article with the following heading; “Can you learn to forgive?” The opening words were, “bearing a grudge can and will hold you back and it will even do damage to your health if you don’t learn to forgive.” The writer of the article had interviewed Dr. Ken Hart from Leeds University who was going around doing lectures on forgiveness. Dr. Hart task was employed at Leeds University teaching the world’s first course on forgiveness. Dr. Hart was asked if this isn’t what the Bible teaches. He replied that he didn’t know because he had never read the Bible nor did he believe in a God. I found it very interesting that a secular University would recognize the merits of forgiving people according to the formula that Jesus taught. I also found that the article informed one that all the people who took this course and attended the lecture were people who were filled with anger, bitterness and when asked everyone said that they wanted to get even with the people who had hurt them.

The mother ran into the bedroom when she heard her seven-year-old son scream. She found his two-year-old sister pulling his hair. She gently released the little girl’s grip and said comfortingly to the boy, "There, there. She didn’t mean it. She doesn’t know that hurts." He nodded his acknowledgement, and she left the room. As she started down the hall the little girl screamed. Rushing back in, she asked, "What happened?" The little boy replied, "She knows now.

In his book "What’s so Amazing About Grace," Philip Yancey tells a story about a man and wife who one night had an argument about how supper was to be cooked, it was so heated that night they slept in separate rooms. Neither has approached the other to say I’m sorry or to offer forgiveness and they have remained in separate room’s years after the argument, each night they would go to bed hoping that the other will approach them with and apology or forgiveness, but neither goes to the other. God’s forgiveness does not wait for repentance; it initiates and calls out repentance by offering forgiveness. Jesus said in Matthew 6: 14-15, "Forgive people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 18:35.

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.’’

Mark 11:25.

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’’

Paul says it in Colossians 3:13.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

James says it in James 2:13.

Because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

We delude ourselves think that forgiveness is just something that we are asked to do; that not true; forgiveness is what we are commanded to do by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God.

Another way we delude ourselves is that we think that those who have hurt us are more likely to be punished only if we keep thinking about what was done to us. The problem is that we have been hurt and our human side wants to get even, we want revenge. We want then to feel as much hurt as they have made us feel. Sometimes people actually make plans so they can make sure that their concept of justice is done. This whole idea of getting even is directly from Satan.

The only people we actually hurt is ourselves, and then when that happen we say that the reason why we have gotten hurt again is because of so and so who hurt us the first time.

What many born again Christians may not realize is that when we fall into this trap of Satan we also grieve the Holy Spirit of God who is living within us.

Ephesians 4:29-32. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.