unFORGIVEness: The Art Of Self- Destruction

It’s easy to talk about the virtue of forgiveness, but the reality of forgiving is another matter. Christian Author CS Lewis identifies the real issue when he writes: “Forgiveness is a beautiful word until you have someone to forgive.” Why is forgiveness so stinking hard? Because it is not natural for us. Human nature defaults to revenge, getting even and holding lifelong grudges. We have a skewed perspective that believes extending forgiveness is an acknowledgement that what was done to us is okay. But, that is absolutely not what is happening behind the scene when we forgive.

Forgiving is surrendering your right to hurt them for hurting you. It is giving it to God, which releases you from the heaviness of the hurt. God takes it and replaces it with His peace and clears your mind to move on in life with no baggage. When we refuse to forgive what we are in essence saying is this: I want grace for my life but I want to extend law to you when you offend me. I want mercy, but I expect full retributive justice to be meted out to you when you cross me.

In today’s podcast, Steve relates the problem of living with unforgiveness towards others: It revokes our forgiveness from God. Yep, that’s biblical…comes right from Jesus. If we think we can receive God’s forgiveness while holding others in debtors prison, Jesus tells us…ain’t gonna happen! Unforgiveness is the number one issue that will prevent any and all personal renovation from happening. If we don’t get this right, everything else we try to renovate will be in vain. The first major area of demo begins with receiving forgiveness and living in that default as we forgive others.