Forgiveness

Forgiveness....

This topic has been on my mind for a week now and I couldn't get myself to write on it until today because, I guess it would have been hypocritical.  For the last week, I woke up with the word on my mind. Yesterday, I was having bible study with a group of friends and someone mentioned forgiveness. Immediately, I was like oh Lord, is this a sign? Do I really need to write on forgiveness?  This morning, I had a dream about someone that hurt me in real life. I woke up thinking about forgiveness and how I needed to get started on my writing. Tonight, I joined this online praise and prayer program and the pastor started talking about forgiving.

This was definitely a sign for me to write about this topic, but little did I know that it was also a sign for me to forgive!  As the pastor started to pray about forgiveness, I opened up my heart to the Lord, I wanted to know why the word had 'haunted' me for the last week. The pastor started to give scenarios where people had been hurt and immediately I started to key into them. Oh my! People have hurt me and I never really thought about it. I started thinking about how I was totally indifferent about what happened in their lives. There was actually a day I thought; 'if A actually dies of COVID19, I wouldn't even be so bothered!' That's how bad it was, but it never came to my mind to actually forgive them. The Holy Spirit helped me to see that I felt hurt by their actions and I was also harbouring some sort of hatred towards them. 

Forgiveness is very deep and it touches places in our heart supernaturally. Physically, it is so hard to forgive especially when someone hurts you real bad and leaves you devastated. How can you also forgive someone when they do not even apologise for what they have done? Right? 

Today, through the Holy Spirit, I have been able to truthfully forgive and I feel so much peace in my heart.  I did cry a lot during the process as I felt the Lord move miraculously. The Lord showed me many things - things I never really thought of, and then I realised that I had been holding on to a lot of grief that burdened my heart unconsciously. 

There are a lot of scriptures that talk about forgiveness. So many talk about how our heavenly father forgives us but what has struck me is the fact when Jesus was teaching how to pray he said; 'Father forgive us, as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6 vs 12)'. Every time we ask the Lord to forgive our debts (sins) do we actually think of those we have not forgiven? Sometimes, most Christians throw the word 'forgive' around lackadaisically. Do we truly forgive? How do we go about it? How do you know you have forgiven someone? 

I am going to share how this process went for me and maybe someone could benefit from it. However, please note that it may be different for some people but the important thing is the peace you feel afterwards. This night, I opened up my heart to the idea of forgiveness. I started by asking the Holy Spirit to give me the grace to be able to forgive. I also asked that He revealed who and who needed forgiveness from me. Then a name came to my mind and what they had done. I took my time to reflect on what they had done and how it hurt me. At that point, I was already in tears and I started to call their name and say 'I forgive you, I release you'. After that, the Holy Spirit helped me to pray for them. I started to speak positive into their lives and pray for them. I did not only say; 'God bless this person or bless that person', I had to pray specific prayers for them. For example, you can pray concerning something you know they are going through, something they need or something a miracle is needed for.  My experience was very overwhelming and I felt a knot loosen in my chest. The Lord has released me from the burden I carried for so long unknowingly and I honestly feel so much peace right now. 

Will I phone or text them now? Maybe not at this point - i'll wait till I get a confirmation to do so. All I know is that, I feel nothing but the love of Christ for them.

So, what am I saying? - Forgiving actually helps us more than we think it does. It gives us peace and it heals our heart.

Try it!

I know some of us have been hurt in unimaginable ways but I tell you, there is no heart God cannot heal. Also, I know I have hurt some people knowingly and even unknowingly; I just pray that the Lord helps them to forgive me. 

So guys, let us start a forgiveness challenge this week. Remember; to err is human and to forgive is divine.

Stay Blessed!

Buky