Forgiven This Letter was written to any child of God who will not forgive. Not forgiving someone can seriously hurt your relationship with God. If you are unwilling to forgive another their sins, you should check out what Matthew 6:14 says {"For if you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. "But if you do not forgive men their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins.} By this scripture, it is clear to see that not forgiving something can send you to hell. It doesn’t matter what the other person has done to you, just forgive him for heaven sake, it is not worth going to hell over. When you hold on to bitterness and hold a grudge against someone, it acts like a poison in your soul and can actually make you physically sick. How often should you forgive when someone sins against you over and over again. The book of Matthew has the answer. Matthew 18:21-22 {Then Peter came to him and asked, ``Sir, how often should I forgive a brother who sins against me? Seven times?'' ``No!'' Jesus replied, ``seventy times seven!} When Jesus said seventy times seven- He did not mean when you have forgiven your brother 490 times you have met God’s requirements for forgiveness and don’t need to forgive your brother anymore. No, It was just Jesus’ way of saying that you must forgive without limit, an unending amount of times. Remember the story in Matthew18:23 where the king forgives a man $10,000,000! That he owed the King and the King had pity on him and forgave him his debt. Then that same man went out from the Kings presents rejoicing because he had been forgiven and then came across one of his servants who owed him about $50.00 and chocked him and demanded that he pay him what he owed him, and when the servant begged for mercy he would not forgive him and through him in jail. Now keep in mind that this man was just forgiven a debt of $10,000,000 he owed to the King, and he would not forgive a $50.00 Dollar debt for his fellow servant. Look what King did to this man who would not forgive - Matthew 18:32-35 {And the king called before him the man he had forgiven and said, `You evil-hearted wretch! Here I forgave you all that tremendous debt, just because you asked me to-- shouldn't you have had mercy on others, just as I had mercy on you?' ``Then the angry king sent the man to the torture chamber until he had paid every last penny due. So shall my heavenly Father do to you if you refuse to truly forgive your brothers.} Our perfect example of forgiveness is when Jesus said in Luke 23:34 {Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do! He said this so he would remain blameless before God. The hell they put Him through and still He found it in His heart to forgive them. If Jesus could forgive them after they put Him through all of that, then what is it for us to forgive others trivial matters. If God forgave you and saved you even though you sinned against Him and hurt Him and grieved His heart on a daily bases, then why would we not find it in our hearts to forgive others, are we any better than God, that we don’t have to forgive. God is love and because he is love he has an awesome amount of forgiveness. Now we are suppose to have the heart of God right, so keep this in mind when you know you should forgive others. |
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