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''Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.' Matthew 5:7

 

Forgiveness

As a single woman sometimes relationships and the process of waiting for the right partner can be tricky. Last year I begun seeing someone when all of a sudden that person stopped communicating and decided to cut our ties. His decision was somewhat unexplained and not something I was able to understand.

Yesterday, this same person contacted me. He had decided to explain and 'come clean' about what really happened over those months. His admissions shocked me, even though there was some closure in knowing the truth I found the experience quite hurtful. At the end of our conversation he asked for my forgiveness.

Still somewhat speechless I paused as he said, "I know I don't deserve it."

Somewhere in the back of my mind a small voice reminded me, "None of us did."

At that moment I realised that I didn't have it in me to forgive him, yet our Lord had forgiven me of so much more. If God could forgive him in the same way He had forgiven me, then with God's strength I could forgive him too.

 

I am sure there are times when you feel like the hurt is too much and you could not possibly forgive.... that you don't have the ability. Praise the Lord that we do not have to do it alone. As we surrender ourselves and our problems to God He enables us to forgive the deepest hurts.

 

Forgiveness in moments like these becomes a choice.

We can choose to rise up (Isaiah 60:1-2 comes to mind) and allow God's glory to shine through us into the situation, or we can choose to wallow in self pity and bitterness. Surely if we truly acknowledge and appreciate the forgiveness that has been shown to us, we understand how we must forgive.

 

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6: 14-15

 

 

Lord, I know that nothing anyone does to me comes close to how they treated you, and yet you were able to forgive your enemies. Thank you for your blood, which saved me from my own sinfulness and allowed me to have a relationship with you. Father, I choose to surrender my unforgiveness to you, help me to extend your grace and mercy to others and not hold resentment towards those that hurt me.  Amen.

 

 

Today's devotion written by Kelly Garrod 21st April 2006.

 

 

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