Forgiveness
"...and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us." Matthew 6:12
Forgiveness is a big thing. It's not a trite issue. It's easy to say, "I forgive you," if someone throws a snowball at you and hits you in the head. But, what if they rape your daughter? What if they ruin your reputation? What if they rip you off and you go lose a lot of money or go bankrupt, and they go Scott-free? What about those situations? You'd better know what you're saying. You'd better understand a little bit more.
Hurt is like an onion, and there are layers to the hurt. In feeling the hurt of the past, I can say that some of the layers of hurt in my own life have been deep. W must deal with hurt until we can honestly say, before God, "I forgive this wrong that was done to me," and it's like the first layer has come off the onion. You really did forgive! Maybe a month goes by and you see someone who looks like that person, and all this stuff comes back up, and it's almost like emotional nausea.
You can't control it! You're ready to just let it all out. You say, "I thought I forgave this person," and Satan is right there to say, "some Christian you are! I thought you forgave them! You're not forgiving them – God's not going to forgive you!" He's right there with his lies! Don't listen to him, okay? You have forgiven! It's just that, in healing, there are layers of healing and the deeper the wound, the longer it's going to take to heal unless God just supernaturally heals you, which He's very capable of doing. If He doesn't, then you're going to go through layers and layers.
When I look at an onion and look at it that way, do you know what usually happens? Down towards the middle and the end of an onion, what does the onion do? It divides into two little pieces! There's a whole lot to do.
Psalm 129, verse 4, "But the Lord is good; he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly."
Proverbs 9, verse 12, "If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer."
Forgiveness is a big thing. It's not a trite issue. It's easy to say, "I forgive you," if someone throws a snowball at you and hits you in the head. But, what if they rape your daughter? What if they ruin your reputation? What if they rip you off and you go lose a lot of money or go bankrupt, and they go Scott-free? What about those situations? You'd better know what you're saying. You'd better understand a little bit more.
Hurt is like an onion, and there are layers to the hurt. In feeling the hurt of the past, I can say that some of the layers of hurt in my own life have been deep. W must deal with hurt until we can honestly say, before God, "I forgive this wrong that was done to me," and it's like the first layer has come off the onion. You really did forgive! Maybe a month goes by and you see someone who looks like that person, and all this stuff comes back up, and it's almost like emotional nausea.
You can't control it! You're ready to just let it all out. You say, "I thought I forgave this person," and Satan is right there to say, "some Christian you are! I thought you forgave them! You're not forgiving them – God's not going to forgive you!" He's right there with his lies! Don't listen to him, okay? You have forgiven! It's just that, in healing, there are layers of healing and the deeper the wound, the longer it's going to take to heal unless God just supernaturally heals you, which He's very capable of doing. If He doesn't, then you're going to go through layers and layers.
When I look at an onion and look at it that way, do you know what usually happens? Down towards the middle and the end of an onion, what does the onion do? It divides into two little pieces! There's a whole lot to do.
Psalm 129, verse 4, "But the Lord is good; he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly."
Proverbs 9, verse 12, "If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer."
Labels: Forgiveness
posted by Dr. James O. Lowell at
3:17 PM
1 Comments:
it's also a process - it can take a long time to move past some hurts.
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