Forgiveness

June 17

Forgiveness, (Tempered)

Read Proverbs 10:1-32

8 The wise are glad to be instructed, but babbling fools fall flat on their faces. 9bPeople with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall. 10 People who wink at wrong cause trouble, but a bold reproof promotes peace. 11 The words of the godly are a life-giving fountain; the words of the wicked conceal violent intentions. 12 Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses. 13 Wise words come from the lips of people with understanding, but those lacking sense will be beaten with a rod. 14 Wise people treasure knowledge, but the babbling of a fool invites disaster. 15 The wealth of the rich is their fortress; the poverty of the poor is their destruction. 16 The earnings of the godly enhance their lives, but evil people squander their money on sin. Proverbs 10:8-16

Are there certain people, who, even just the mention of their name can set you off in three seconds flat? Although you don’t particularly care for the way you respond, you can’t forget how badly that person treated you. Normally you’re not a hateful person, but your feelings for so-and-so cross the line of hatred.

Proverbs 10 urges us to deal with this ugly emotion head-on. That’s easy to say but not so easy to do. The principles in this reading, however, will help you out.

Other lessons in this chapter will teach you how to avoid sorrow; how to keep your foot out of your mouth; and how to avoid aggravating your employer.

Many people spend their whole lives hating certain people. They cannot let go of wrongs done to them, or forgive offenses from the distant past. Their statements about these people become laced with unkind words and slander. Harboring hatred destroys the person doing the hating and causes nothing but conflict with others (Proverbs 10:12). “Hiding hatred makes you a liar; slandering others makes you a fool” (10:18). In contrast, those who love bring forgiveness and healing because “love makes up for all offenses” (10:12). Love forgives and forgets.

Beware of hatred. If you try to conceal your hatred, you only lie about your true feelings. If you slander the other person, you become a fool. The only way out is to admit your hateful feelings to God, ask him to change your heart, and forgive the other person. Let God’s love go beyond the other person’s offense and help you to actually forgive the offender (10:12). Ask God to help you love instead of hate.

     This is one of those hard to swallow pills that as Christians, we have to do our best to take. I'm not saying this is an easy thing to walk out, at all. There are two people that have been the hardest in my life for me to forgive. It's bc of course you can bad mouth me, do whatever you want to, to me up to a point of course, but do not lie on, bad mouth or hurt my children in anyway at all. Or this momma will get angry. Well, needless to say that's what happened and I've found it really hard to forgive these two, and it never fells that when it seems like I'm almost there, Satan rears his ugly head and he twists that knife that they stabbed me in the back with, just to tell me that it's still there.  Satan want let me forgive them muchless to forget. But that's what I have to do if I want to be able to heal and not be a mean old geezer. 

Why is it that when it comes to the great times in our lives we can barely remember those, and some time not at all? But we have a memory like an elephant when it comes to the bad things that have happened to us. 

I don't know about y'all but I want to be able to forgive everybody, even someone who is mean, rotten, and devious to me. They do not deserve it one iota but I believe we deserve to be free of all that comes with not holding on to unforgiveness in our hearts. I don't want to go 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years holding on to all that junk. It causes us to be angry, hateful, spiteful, vengeful, devious, underhanded and rotten people. I don't want to turn into that kind of person. I know what that person looks like and I don't want that for myself nor my children, family or friends. 

God can take that anger from us and replace it with love and kindness even towards the people that hurt us. God can do anything, we just have to let Him do the work in us. 

If you have unforgiveness towards someone please pray this pray with me, bc I don't want to hold on to this any longer. Bc the longer I hold on to this so hard my knockles turn white, the more when they are spoken about my mouth starts saying mean things and I don't want that any longer. I don't want all that fire to boil up inside of me or to be in the back ground waiting to bubble up and take hold of me. So please pray this with me today and every day until we don't have these feelings any longer. 

God, we are asking Your love to go beyond the other person’s offenses and help us to actually forgive the offender. We are asking You to help us to replace these hateful, angery, and hurt feeling's with godly love and caring feelings. But help us to keep our guard up so that the person or people who hurt us before want be able to hurt us in the same way again or in anyway at all. Help us to forget the pain of the offense but not the offense itself. Help us to get past the pain and unforgiveness of what they've done to us. So that we don't turn into angry offensive people ourselves. We want to be the people who shine the light of Jesus Christ out on to this world. That they may want to have what we have and not what this currpt world has, so that we can help to bring others to Christ before this world goes to hell in a hand basket, as my grandma use to say. 

God we pray all these things in Jesus' name and in one accord. And bless us all. Amen.