Entry #6 - Forgiveness & Forgetting Go Hand-in-Hand

I've gotten annoyed when people run into me because they're on their phone, but then I've done that too.

I've gotten upset when someone's been intentionally mean to me, but then I've done that too.

I've been mad at someone judging someone, but then I've done that too.

I've cried when someone's said something hurtful, but then I've done that too.

See the pattern?

It's so easy to feel like we're entitled to not forgive someone when we've either done the exact same thing they've done to us, or we've elicited the same emotional response by doing something similar to what they did.

No one leaves this world without being hurt or being the reason someone else is hurt. We're in a broken world, surrounded by broken people, and broken situations, but we're not utterly hopeless.

Thank God that He sent His Son to save the world from all brokenness. Thank God that perfect love casts our fear. Thank God that love wins.

When we forgive, we are freeing ourselves from allowing someone else's brokenness to break us. See, we're not just doing it for them, we're doing it also for ourselves. We're releasing the brokenness and replacing it with love, and then that love fills us so deeply for that person. 

God says when He forgives, He no longer remembers. True forgiveness is forgiving how God forgives. Not holding onto it, not letting it hurt us, not letting it live in us. Forgetting is essential for experiencing freedom.

True forgiveness is forgetting the offense and not allowing the previous offenses to have any power over you. I see all these quotes where they say "I forgive you, but I'll never forget what you did" or "I forgave her, but I didn't speak to her for 3 years" and I can't help but feel sorry for those people because they are still prisoners by refusing to fully forgive. 

They're choosing to allow someone's offense to have control over their lives, and it gives the enemy a foothold in our lives of resentment, anger, hatred, and even disgust of that person. If they only knew that forgiving and forgetting brings true liberation into their lives and helps to heal themselves, I believe forgiveness would be welcomed more in their lives.

God forgives us even when He has every right to not. He's perfect, blameless and has the ability to remember everything, yet He still goes out of His way to forgive us who are broken and chooses to forget all our offenses. 

If that's the case, then why are we so reluctant to forgive others when we ourselves are just as broken and guilty of sin as they are? If God grants mercy and forgives, forgets, and loves, should we not follow His example? Or should we say we forgive, but then always hold their offenses over our heads and never talk to them again because they hurt our feelings. Have we not all hurt someone?

"And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

- Jeremiah 31:34