Forgiveness

Some people hurt you unintentionally. Some people hurt you deliberately. Forgive them both! The anger, resentment, stress & worry you put into it will have a long-lasting effect on your body and more than likely, they've moved on from it, or didn't care from the beginning. Now, whether or not you choose to continue to deal with them is another story. LIFE IS WAY TOO SHORT!

Growing up, I think every generation was told to "Forgive and Forget." Then as we got older, people started saying they forgive the person but they don't forget what they did. Which expression is correct? Jesus plainly tells us in:

Matthew 6:14-15 NLT

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."

None of us are without sins or faults. The world's views on sin(s) is judged extremely  different than what God teaches us. We often compare some actions being greater or lesser than the other, such as a fib or  small white lie versus a lie. At the end of the day, a lie is STILL a LIE whether we're lying about something huge or something very small.

James 2:10-11 NLT

"For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law."

Romans 3:23 NLT

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

We are human with a fleshly body and are going to continue to make mistakes and have faults.  Thank God for his mercies being new everyday and for his AMAZING grace! We as a people need to learn and work on being more merciful to those who have wronged us (using wisdom of course).

Matthew 7:6 NLT

“Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you."

*"Neither cast ye your pearls before swine," advice that Jesus gave to Peter. It means: Don't waste your advice, intelligence, good words (basically, anything you could provide of value) on those who are too naive or ignorant to appreciate it.

I love the way this user broke down that scripture. So, when I said we need to be merciful to those who have offended us, there are alot of people we will have to love from a distance even tho we have forgiven them. Some people may continue to hurt us, put us down and are just not healthy for us to be around, and it's up to us to choose whether or not we're going to be around that negative environment. Letting them go and choosing to not to talk to them or hang with them anymore doesn't necessarily mean we no longer love or care about them, just that we love and care about ourselves more and those individuals need to get themselves right first and learn to love themselves in order to be a better and kinder person to the people that are in their lives. Only then, when we know they're attempting to change for the better and do right, then we can obtain that same grace & mercy Jesus has when he said:

Isaiah 43:25 NLT

“I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.

We will truly have such a LOVE and FORGIVENESS in our hearts towards those who have committed the most unbelievable offenses and earth-shattering evils towards us that we, too, will remember their short-comings NO MORE!
THANK YOU JESUS FOR FORGIVING US WHEN NO MATTER WHAT WE SAY OR DO, WE'LL NEVER BE DESERVING OF YOUR GRACE & MERCY! PLEASE BE BLESSED & ENCOURAGED IN THE LORD TODAY!!! XoXoXo
~Raven J.