We’ve all been hurt in our lives by other people,may have been by our parents, by friends, by relatives, by employers or by our spouse. Often-times the deepest hurts are by those we are closest too. The ones we really want to love us the most sometimes hurt us the worst. How do you handle it when someone hurts you? Do you get angry, look to get revenge, give the silent treatment, hold a grudge, become bitter or make a vow to never forget? NLT 1 Corinthians 13:5b Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.
One guy said to a friend, “Whenever my wife and I get into an argument, she gets historical.” His friend said, “you mean hysterical,” “No,” he said, “historical, she tells me everything I’ve ever done wrong.” But God doesn’t want us to keep historical records of the wrongs done against us. When we hold grudges, when we focus on our hurts and the people who have hurt us, we come into bondage to those things. We become unloving, bitter people. We become just like those who have hurt us. Whatever we focus our minds and attentions upon, we become like.
We’re all going to get hurt by people, we don’t have a choice in that. Our choice is how to respond to those who hurt us. Forgiveness opens the door to living in freedom. Our forgiveness of others releases God’s forgiveness toward us. In our current message series, we’re looking at the prayer that Jesus gave us as a model prayer, the Lord’s prayer. NLT Matthew 6:12 and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. Our relationship with God is dependent on our relationship with other people. Whether we forgive others or not determines our relationship with God.
Many people don’t understand the principle Jesus is teaching here. They live their lives in bondage, wondering why there is no joy in life, wondering why their prayers are not answered, wondering why God seems so far away. The key is to forgive those who have hurt and sinned against us, even if it is very difficult to do. Forgiveness is difficult, but with God’s help you can do it. You can release God’s power of forgiveness as you put into practice three keys to living in freedom.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 3, 2005 message entitled Releasing God’s Power Of Forgiveness