091007

September 10, 2007

Forgiveness and Believing God

by Shana Schutte

The times when I’ve harbored the greatest unforgiveness toward another person is when I’ve perceived that they taken something from me that cannot be redeemed by God or that I can’t get back: a friendship, a job, dream; or they’ve withheld something from me that I desperately wanted such as love, forgiveness, acceptance or affirmation.

I realize that in my unforgiveness and the lie that, “They ruined my life,” there is no room for the sovereignty of God; to believe His love, or that He has the redemptive power to make something good out of something bad. In short, I perceive there is no redemption for what was lost. Therefore I reduce God to passive, powerless, unloving or unkind and that’s not God at all.

But when I choose to forgive, I’m forced to acknowledge or consider that God is able and even willing to make good on Romans 8:28, and like Joseph who forgave his brothers for wrong doing, I can confidently say with peace, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good.”

By freeing the one who wronged me through forgiveness, I myself am freed into belief of God’s love, His sovereignty and His power to redeem what hurt me. Ah glory! I am freed into hope for my future.

"Forgive and you will be forgiven" (Luke 6:37).

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