Forgiveness

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:13).

The hardest thing in life is to forgive another person. When you forgive someone, you are promising to bury the hurt and never bring it up again. When you forgive someone, you are promising to trust them and rely on them just as if they had never let you down. Of all the difficult things in life, forgiveness is the hardest.

Forgiveness is hard, because you don’t want to be a chump. There’s an old saying that goes, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." If someone has betrayed your trust, isn’t it asking for trouble to go back and trust them again? Yet that’s the nature of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is hard, because we want revenge. When someone hurts us, we to return that pain with interest. But forgiveness denies us that satisfaction; forgiveness lets the other person off the hook without suffering punishment. That’s the nature of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is hard, because we want to have the upper hand. When someone has wronged us and wants to get back on our good side, we’re in the driver’s seat. We can make them work hard to please us. But forgiveness acts differently. When you forgive someone, the relationship is restored immediately. Forgiveness is not earned; that’s the nature of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is hard—it’s the hardest thing in the universe. Just look at Jesus for the proof. The Son of God had to die in order to make our sins forgivable. Thankfully, He did not stay dead; Jesus rose from the grave to bless us with His forgiveness. When we beg Him for mercy, He forgets our sins as if they had never happened. He does not bring them up again, or look at us suspiciously, waiting for our next slip up. When Jesus forgives us, He does so without hesitation. He has no desire to punish us in hell; in fact, He suffered hell for us while on the cross—Jesus forgives us because He loves us. And when Jesus forgives us, He does so unconditionally. He doesn’t expect us to earn His favor or repay Him for His generosity. Through Jesus, we experience forgiveness in all it’s beauty and wonder; with His help, offer that forgiveness to everyone who needs it.