Do you remember the last time you forgave someone? Some people find it hard to forgive. Living in an “eye for an eye” society, most people don’t even consider forgiveness anymore. Most people find it hard to just look past things. These days, people enjoy seeing others suffer. For some reason, it makes them feel better. The lack of forgiveness in our world has allowed people to think it’s okay to get revenge. I’m here to tell you that’s it’s not.
Let me first explain what forgiveness is. The standard definition of forgiveness is the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven. The biblical definition is giving up my right to hurt you, for hurting me. Now that you know what forgiveness is, let me explain to you why it’s important. In life, we are going to deal with negative people. Sometimes it can be friends, family members, classmates, co-workers, managers, or even your brothers & sisters in Christ. The intentions behind some people can be really evil. In most cases, if a negative person sees you doing better than them, they try to find ways to bring you down. Some might try to talk about you or some may even try to hurt you physically. Once when they attempt to bring you down, some might expect or want a reaction out of you. This is what some people call a “testing period”. Not only are they testing you, but God is also testing you. Sometimes the negative people are placed in your life just to test your faith. This is why it’s so important to forgive people even when you really don’t want to.
We also have to remember that if God forgives us for all of the bad things we’ve done, then we can forgive as well. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15). In some cases, people can’t bring themselves to forgive someone right away, which is fine, but you would want to eventually get to the point of forgiveness. When you hold on to grudges, it brings you down too. If you’re constantly thinking about what a person did to you years ago, you’re not going to be able to focus on the blessings that are in your life right now. You need to let go of things that are no longer important. “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25).
To successfully get through these hard times, you need to pray for the person that has done you wrong. You don’t know what that person could be going through. Pray that they find happiness. Ask God to forgive them and to bless them with wisdom and knowledge. Don’t forget to pray for yourself too. Ask God to place the right words in your mouth. Also, ask God to keep you away from negativity. Once you get to this point, this allows you to grow in your spiritual life and it might even allow the negative people to ask you for forgiveness. Once God sees you forgiving those that tried to bring you down, He will bless you.
“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:32