Forgiveness is an act of grace...

Wow! It's been almost a week since my last post. The time has just been flying! I really want to know how we can request more hours in the day and more weeks to our summer. I get up early and go to bed late because there's so much I want to accomplish in a day. Oh, well...what can you do? =]
Matthew 5:7~Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
I just finished teaching a little series on Forgiveness in my ladies group. It's something that I really felt was necessary. I felt like I needed these ladies (and myself) to really understand that as long as we are carrying unforgiveness, grudges, guilt, etc...we are not fully allowing ourselves to move on. How can we serve others and live freely if we don't want to forgive?
Forgiveness does not mean that you are forgetting or accepting or approving whatever has happened. It is not a feeling, it's not trusting that person again, it's not pretending you weren't hurt, and it's not even reconciliation.
Forgiveness is a DECISION. It is a decision to obey God, but no one - not even God, can make you forgive. It is up to you.
Ephesians 4:32 ~ "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
Forgiveness can protect the forgiver from himself.
Forgiveness is an act of grace.
Surprisingly, one of the most needed lessons I taught was on "Forgiving Yourself". How many of us carry guilt from our past? Regrets that haunt your present day?
Psalm 25:7~Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.
You may be thinking of something you did or even something that was done to you and you blame yourself. This can hinder you from living a free life!
I am sorry, friend, but there is nothing you can do to change the past. You need to decide to let those things go. Forgive them...forgive yourself.
You can choose to wallow in the pain and disappointment or you can walk away from those memories and start creating new ones.
Don't use what has happened as a crutch of disability. Face those things head on, move them out of your way and go forward.
If Christ can forgive all sins, why is it so hard to forgive ourselves? That burden is keeping you in bondage. It is like carrying an extra weight...and let's not get into how tiring that is!
There are people that have physical illness from carrying around an unforgiving spirit.
Problems with high blood pressure, stress, hostility, depression, etc. can creep up on you and stay with you as long as you are holding on to the past. Let it go. Give it to God.
1 Peter 5:7~Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.


I bid you peace and freedom today my friends! There is much to be done.

Forgiveness...

Think about the following story. Who do you need to forgive?

The Sands of Forgiveness by Author Unknown

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.
The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.
They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.
After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.
The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"
The other friend replied "When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."
LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian woman who survived a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust, said, "Forgiveness is to set a prisoner free, and to realize the prisoner was you."

Matthew 18: 21-22 (KJV) --- Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.