Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Taking the Grenade..(Forgiving Others)

Forgiving someone who has wronged me is right up there with loving my enemy as far as challenges go. I am not going to lie, I might be quick to say 'I forgive you' when a person says sorry. The only problem is that I have a hard time letting it go. I will catch myself replaying what they did over and over in my head. Unfortunately, it only creates a heavy burden...

But it's not a burden I have to carry! I don't know if you know this but God gave us a pretty cool power, the power to forgive. He also wants us to let it go and not continue to dwell. Don't you always feel like a heavy load has been lifted when you have forgiven someone of their transgressions. You've been set free by your forgiveness!

Why should we forgive? Jesus died on the cross for our sins and by that we our forgiven, so we should forgive others. You say 'they don't deserve it', but don't we wrong God time and time again and he forgives us every time?

I read in a Tenth Avenue North devotional once that forgiving is like the pain of a grenade.

          When a grenade is thrown your way you have three choices...You can choose to run from
           the grenade, however not only are you but others could become damaged in the explosion.
          (That's like forgiving someone but never letting it go, the hurt just follows you in the process.)
           You can throw it back at the person, sounds enticing, but it only redirects the grenade and
           making the fire bigger. Or you can do the unthinkable, fall on the grenade and absorb it.
           Suffer the explosion and take the death for those around you. You are probably wondering
           what this has to do with forgiveness, well a lot. Jesus died for us so we could be forgiven...he
           could have thrown what we deserved right back at us. Instead he chose to lose his life,
           absorb our sins, and then wrap us in his loving arms after taking the fall.

Grace is hard to understand and not easy because it comes with a price. We have to lose our pride and the right to be resentful. You also take their right away to offend you by taking it head on...And like dying by the grenade, so does what we are hanging on to when we choose to let go. No longer can we live what hurt others have given us, the bitterness, hatred, and hurt all has to die!

If Jesus can do that for the very people who drove the nails into his body, I know we possess in us the same strength to take the grenade!