Accomplishing Forgiveness
June 13, 2021
Psalm 19:11 states that “It is a man’s glory to forgive”.
Is it really our glory? Is it really a crown?!!
Forgiveness is at the very core of God’s heart. Is it at the core of ours?
Spend just a little time soaking in that glorious truth woven throughout scripture. It will will free you when you really grasp the truth of it. Micah 7:18 states that God delights in showing Mercy! Can I ask you? When was the last time you delighted in giving someone mercy or in forgiving someone that hurt you? It is certainly not easy at times.
But look at the heart of our Creator toward us! “He has not dealt with us according to our sin.” Ps. 103:10. “Our sins shall be as white as snow” Isaiah 1:18 and Isaiah 55:7 states that “He will abundantly pardon.”
When I Google that word abundantly - we find it is described as “profusely, copiously, plentiful, in extreme amounts”
and…
That is what he has done for you!!!
Have we fogotten that he did this all for us, and have we forgotten that God's only son had to have nails driven in his hands in order to pay the price for our trauma at the hand of others? Have we not allowed the truth of that to soak in?
I am the first to admit, it is hard really grasping that truth as an adult, and imagine how we did at as children. Yet this is where many issues start to be weaved into our lives. Most of the time, our decisions to make someone pay for their actions toward us from a very young age, to 'never be like them', and 'never forgive' - get laminated with bitterness or unforgiveness that is very hidden and it sticks and grows inside our hearts until it becomes very hard to see, or even unravel. The seed of unforgiveness sits and is is watered under the soil of our hearts and too much time between the sowing and reaping that seed, prevents us from seeing where it all began. So as an adult, we start seeing what it produced in our lives, yet too many times, we do not see where it began. Sometimes, we even end up “tormented” by our own unforgiveness. And the truth is that according to Galations 6:7- we reap not only according to the unforgiveness but in increase! Just like a seed that produces much fruit.
Think about someone you haven’t forgiven. Do you feel like they “owe you somehow?”
So many times the hurt is deep within our hearts. How can we accomplish forgiveness? The truth is we can not truly forgive except for the power of the cross. And even that… we can ask the Lord to empower our words. But for a little while…
Can you ...or will you sit calmly and meditate on the fact that Jesus paid the price - Jesus took the nails? and Can you choose to forgive in Jesus name. Can you ask Him to take the pain, the hurt, the bitterness? Can you think of what Christ did on the cross and value mercy above judgement. And say - I only can do it through Jesus… and I choose forgiveness.
To Abundantly Forgive? That is really difficult,.
I know. Psalm 142 says to “pour out your heart to Him” . And sometimes we need to do just that.
Forgiveness is not forgetting! It is not “stuffing” - It is not denial. If it were, most of us wouldn’t have so many things popping up in our lives today - we have stuffed them fro so long. We need to look at the truth and just tell the Lord! Psalm 51:6 Says “I desire truth in my innermost being!!” Pour out your heart, pour out your hurt.
He wants you to be truthful to him.
And the Bible states that “He will abundantly pardon”
We cant- but He can!! Only by the power of the Cross. “Lord empower my words…I choose to forgive.
Not us…Him.
Do you remember the parable of the unforgiving debtor in Matthew 18? A certain man owed millions to his debtor and received mercy, but would not or could not find it in himself to forgive someone for just a few thousand dollars, althought that man begged and begged for mercy. The bible states that the unforgiving debtor was then delivered to his “tormentors” because he could not forgive.
That is the harsh reality, We don’t just reap according to our unforgiveness, but we reap much more. Is there anyone who wants to reap the wrong we sow? Can that fact alone bring us to our needs to forgive our debtors....
Abundantly- Profusely, Copiously, Plentiful, and in Extreme Amounts?
How Do we Accomplish Forgiveness
Does your heart cry out- “How can I forgive a molester ? Or must I let go of my bitterness to such an abandoning Father? I know its hard, and that it almost seems impossible at times. I will not minimize that, The trauma done against you at the hands of your friend, or your abuser, boss, molester or the like…. was not your fault. And sometimes it needs someone to help you through that ... and it takes time. So I pause to bless that part of your heart that feels so hurt and I ask the Lord to show you His love and to begin to give you the freedome to even want to want to forgive your hardest things ever done to you.
Can we grasp somehow, that forgiving others is our glory, and not our demise, our freedom and not our prison, our adornment and not our rags - Would accomplish forgiveness more from the heart? God wants us to come into the fulness of our blessing, our generational blessings and we simply just cannot give to God HIS full inheitance of a holy Bride of Christ if we do not. Period. No other way. He will show mercy to 1000 generations to those that fear him! (Exodus 20:6 , Ephesians 1:18)
We forgot…. “ forgiveness IS our crown! Our crown of glory. Psalm 19:11
IT is a man’s and woman’s glory to forgive.
Accomplishing Forgiveness Is a Choice: Choosing to forgive does not let that person free, or off the hook. The Bible clearly says - “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatever a man sows that shall he also reap” … they will reap what they have sown. But what accomplishing forgiveness does do — is set you free from reaping their consequences. A wonderful internet meme states….
“ when you accomplish forgiveness you realize you set a prisoner free, and then you realize that prisoner was YOU”. …
In essence - forgiveness - releases you from the tormentors of Matthew 18…and releases the Creator, the maker of heaven and earth to bring the reaping to only your accuser. You are set free from the reaping of unforgiveness and Creator is ready to punish “all disobedience - whenever your obedience is complete” (2 Corinthians 10:6)
Generational Blessings can now flow and Creator can restore to us all that was waiting. (Exodus 20:6)
Corrie Tenboom
Corrie Ten Boom is an incredible example of choosing to forgive. She not only knew the power of forgiveness, but had to live it. Carrie and her family were captured and sent to a Ravensbruck concentration camp during World War II after being caught for harboring jews in thier house. Her sister’s death in that camp was the the tragic ending to the indescribable crimes committed against them. Here she describes her forgiveness of her captors.
"It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear.
It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown. “When we confess our sins,” I said, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.”…
And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones.
It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent.
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.
“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?” And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that. And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
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My friend... can you ask the Father to begin the work in you, to forgive your brother with all your heart?