Forgiveness

This last week we talked about Forgiveness, and I found some great insights in Marty Sholars' book, The Greater Healing.

                                                                                                             

 “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die!” 

“Forgiveness is about freeing yourself from the power of the lies that another’s sinful behavior has led you to accept as truth.  We need to realize that we become what we do not forgive.  But, forgiveness breaks the bondage of our spirit to the other person’s spirit.  We may never forget what we have forgiven, but the memory no longer has power to hurt us.”

            

The Greater Healing: The Journey From Brokenness To Joy Through God’s Love, by Marty Sholars with Kay Walter.

In terms of "forgiving & forgetting," one of my favorite professors at Fuller Seminary, Lewis Smedes preached the following in a sermon entitled, "The Forgiveness Factor," 

“Forgiveness is hard; forgetting is easy.  You need no miracle of grace in order to forget.  All you need is a bad memory or enough fear to drive the memory into the dark recesses of your unconsciousness.”

Sholar adds,

“Forgiveness does not mean forgetting.  Physical scars certainly remind us of the events that caused them.   Although a scar from a physical wound may be unattractive, it’s proof of the wound’s healing.  In the same way, scars from spiritual and emotional wounds give proof of God’s healing – the fact that we are not still “bleeding” from these wounds.  God transforms them by His grace into experiences we can use to help others find healing from their hurts.”

May God grant us the grace and strength to forgive others, and release them from being in our debt!