More Forgiveness!

Here are three helpful thing to remember when looking at what forgiveness means. First, it means that we are not to bring up to the person whom we have forgiven the thing we forgave. That is to say we do not remind the person over and over of what they did and what we forgave. We are not to constantly harass them with reminders of the evil things they did in the past. Some marriages stumble greatly at this point because the partners not only get hysterical, they get historical during disagreements! They go back over the past, ready to trot it out and rehash it once more – even after forgiveness has been asked for and granted. That shows that it has never truly forgiven in the first place. Parents can do the very same thing with their kids when they continue to point out things that they have supposedly forgiven that the child has done. Know that God does not do that or treat us like that. How terrible it would be if he did, if we had to constantly faced reminders from him of the awful things of our past that He has forgiven! Forgive and more forward and do not bring it up again.

The second thing forgiveness means is that we do not tell anybody else about the matter that is forgiven. We do not gossip about it to others or say I will tell you but just do not tell anyone else. When it is forgiven it is gone. It is not that we actually erase it from memory because we may think of it from time to time but when we do, we are not to dwell on it and certainly not tell others all about it. Too often we tell people we have forgiven them and then talk to everyone about what the person did – if forgiveness was asked for and granted – it should never be a topic of conversation with others. Again, God does not treat us that way and we should not treat others that way. Treat others the way you want to be treated and that would be when it is forgiven it is gone!

Then the third thing forgiveness means is this: that you do not sit and think all about the offense or offender that has been forgiven! Even in your private thoughts, never allow the offense to come up and to color your attitude toward the one you that you have forgiven. If it does come up, you must put it away and remind yourself that you too need to be forgiven for many things in life. You do not want people mulling over your forgiven sins and dredging them up all the time – do you? Forgiveness means to put it aside even to yourself because that is what Christ has done for us.

Forgiveness is a powerful and freeing act and unforgiveness is bondage – put off the garment of bondage and put on the freedom of forgiveness. Live in the freedom of forgiveness – you will not regret it! Some of you here today need to find that freedom that comes from asking for forgiveness and some need to find the freedom in granting others forgiveness. God has freely forgiven us and now it is time for us to do it for others and ourselves.