21/11/2022
All of us have been hurt. It’s a painful part of life. A parent neglects you or even abuses you. A friend disappoints you or betrays you. A spouse is unfaithful to you or abandons you. A stranger assaults your loved one.
It’s as if you have been stabbed in the back, but the knife is still there. And every time you replay the hurt in your mind, you twist the knife a little more. The pain never leaves and the wound never heals.
What can we do? What can we do about this pain and poison that ruins our life and robs our joy?
God has a solution. God’s solution is simple, but it’s not easy. God’s solution is grace. Extend grace to the person who hurt you. Forgive.
Forgiveness does not mean that all of your hurt and pain are gone. That may take a very long while. Forgiveness means that you have made a choice to forgive, to let go of your anger, to let go of your resentment, to let go of your right to get even. You have said to God, “Lord, I forgive him. I choose to forgive him. I give you my anger and my resentment, my desire to get even. I give it all to you.”
Take the knife out. Let the pain go. Let the wound heal.
Set a prisoner free. Set yourself free from a prison of pain and poison.
Forgiveness is a healing choice, a choice made by Christ’s strength in us, a choice made because of Christ’s grace to us.
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
