Forgiveness
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Do you ever get angry? Do you desire to lash back at those that hurt you? The bible says not to get angry. Anger paves a way for destructive behavior and, well, we should just not get angry. “Uh… okay. I won’t. Yeah right.” Impossible. We all get angry. We all want to be right! We all want our wrongs made right. That is our nature. It is, however, destructive.
Ephesians 26 (NLT) And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,
Forgiveness…. What is it? What isn’t it?
The bible tells us not to let our anger control us. In other words, don’t let your anger cause you to do harm to someone else. Remember what our parent’s taught us,”if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all.” The bible says that we should not let the sun go down while we are still angry. Isn’t that hard? Don’t you just get so angry at your spouse, your kids, your parents, your friend, your boss, your co-worker, the guy on the highway, that you just want to spit nails?? Don’t you want to punish the people that harm you? If you said no, good for you. Are you being honest?
When we are angry, we sin. We talk negatively, we act negatively, we yell, we fight, we curse, we hurt others. Do you really feel better when you’ve gotten “revenge”? Or do you feel worse?
When we forgive, we are not making an “excuse,” causing us to be a door mat. We are choosing not to hold onto that anger, to further cause harm. We are choosing not to feel the stress, the discomfort, or hear the noise in our heads about the situation. Instead, we are choosing to move forward and bring peace to our lives.
When you do something nice for someone else, don’t you feel good? Forgiveness will also make you feel better. You will feel less tense, less focused on all the junk, allowing you to once again focus on God and all the goodness!!!
I understand there are crazy circumstances that you can say are too hard to forgive. Your spouse cheated on you, left you, your kid stole from you… there are very bad things that happen. Unfortunately, though, if you don’t forgive, (I didn’t say excuse and forget), you will fall into a pit that will get more and more difficult to climb out of. This pit will lead you down a destructive path, that will cause you and everyone around you pain.
I pray for all of us that our anger does not fuel us to do negative things. I pray that our anger will cause conversations that will allow us to grow, and become stronger, better people, and that forgiveness will easily pour out of our hearts!
