Truth: Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-33 (New Living Translation) Thought: There are many who, after being forgiven by God and after seeking the forgiveness of those they have offended, find it extremely difficult to live in the freedom that forgiveness brings. Sometimes they don’t feel they were worthy to [...] Read more »
Passing Along the Freedom of Forgiveness
The Father is in the business of restoring relationship with you, restoring your relationships with others and restoring our relationship with creation. And forgiveness is the tool He uses and the means He provides to ensure His plans works – in a world that is still not what it was intended to be. That world is coming and we’ll get there because He’s forgiven us. He is our motivation and example when He said, “Father forgive them…” from the cross. [...] Read more »
Agreeing to Live Without What God Withholds
Agreeing to live without what God withholds means letting the potter be the potter and recognize you are the clay. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He thinks generationally and eternally. We are short sighted and linear. It’s often best for us to simply be still and know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10) Part of living un-offended with God is to look to what He is doing and not to what He hasn’t [...] Read more »
Truth to Meditate On to Know You Are Forgiven
If you’ve asked for forgiveness from God, you may still need help knowing you’re forgiven. People have this problem when they want to “feel” like they’ve been forgiven. Truth supersedes feelings. Feelings will follow, but they don’t point to the truth when they contradict what the Bible says. So know what the Bible says about forgiveness. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is [...] Read more »
Forgiving the Father
I’ve often been asked if anyone ever needs to forgive God. That language makes me uncomfortable. Forgiveness is giving up our right for revenge. It’s putting the other into the hands of God. It’s His to avenge. He’s the one to repay. How can we put God in His own hands? How could we ever take revenge against God? However, forgiveness is also agreeing to live with the consequences of another’s action or inaction. That could mean we may need [...] Read more »
Accepting Forgiveness
There are many who, after being forgiven by God and after seeking the forgiveness of those they have offended, find it extremely difficult to live in the freedom that forgiveness brings. Sometimes they don’t feel they were worthy to be forgiven. This is true; all of us stand before God by His grace. But this is a liberating truth of scripture, not something that condemns us. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans [...] Read more »
What If The Person Won’t Forgive Me When I Ask?
This is a question often used to to justify not asking for forgiveness from someone we’ve offended. It’s never easy to swallow our pride, humble ourselves, admit we were wrong and ask for forgiveness. But what Jesus taught in Matthew 5:23-26 was that we need to leave our sacrifice at the altar and go and seek forgiveness when we’ve offended someone. This is why we celebrate the Lord’s supper regularly and why I’m a fan of celebrating communion every time [...] Read more »
How to Ask for Forgiveness
Neil T. Anderson gives the following advice around asking for forgiveness in “The Steps to Freedom in Christ”: Only the actions, which have hurt another person, need to be confessed to them. If you have had jealous, lustful or angry thoughts toward another, and they don’t know about it, these are to be confessed to God alone. An exception to this principle occurs when restitution needs to be made. If you stole or broke something, damaged someone’s reputation, and so [...] Read more »
Asking for Forgiveness
We are fallen people living in a fallen world. That’s not an excuse. We need to become more and more and more like Jesus. But there may be times when we have sinned against someone else and we need to make it right. The rabbis taught that the sin against someone else was heavier than the sin against God, because God would always forgive, but someone else may not. They didn’t have the book of Romans, so Rabbi Paul had [...] Read more »
Prayer of Release
Over the past few days has the Spirit brought memories of un-forgiven offenses to your thoughts? Maybe you know someone who needs to forgive another, but have been wondering how they can? This prayer isn’t magic, but it has been helpful to bring people to the freedom of forgiveness. Prayer: In the name of Jesus, I purpose and choose to forgive (the person) from my heart for (what they did). I acknowledge the hurt and the hate it has led [...] Read more »
The Forgiving and Forgetting Fallacy
If you truly forgive, shouldn’t you forget? Don’t you love it when people quote adages like they’re Scripture? “Forgive and forget” has done so much damage to people’s understanding of God and their relationship with others. Do you realize God does not forget the sins He forgives us of? How could He and still be an all-knowing God? Instead He chooses to not remember and hold them against us. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins [...] Read more »
A Serious Question About Forgiveness
I won’t go into the details of when I first heard this question but I can tell you, although it has the appearance of wisdom, it shows a lack of Biblical understanding. Q. Christ doesn’t forgive me until I ask for it, so shouldn’t I wait to forgive someone until they ask for it? No. First, you aren’t the Father. You don’t have His capacity for grace. Second, understand that you forgive for your sake, not theirs. Third, take a [...] Read more »
Do I Need to Forgive Myself?
Do we ever need to forgive ourselves? For a long time my response to this question was, “If the Father forgives me, who am I to hold a grudge?” But as I work with people I find increasingly that to move on in their relationship with God, they really do need to forgive themselves. We can’t allow condemnation from the past to define our destiny. That authority to define our destiny is the Father’s alone. Personally, I know if it [...] Read more »
Forgiveness Confusion
Too many followers of Christ are confused about forgiveness. They live out of lies they hold to as truth. We don’t forgive because we believe the violator needs to pay. We feel the one who did us wrong needs to understand what we were put through. We want the one who sinned to acknowledge what they did and make amends. But we must awaken to the fact that un-forgiveness leads to bitterness and separation from God. He has forgiven us [...] Read more »
Remember the Father has Forgiven Us
You do not need to be perfect before Christ forgives you and welcomes you into His kingdom. He loves you the way you are… and wants to empower you to forgive others, to be forgiven by others, and to accept the forgiveness He freely offers you. You can arrive at this by first admitting you’ve fallen short of the impossible standard of a Perfect God… you’re not perfect. We’re all ready to admit that, but most of us use it [...] Read more »
Why Un-Forgiveness Hurts Us
Are you a follower of Christ who struggles with having a victorious daily walk with the Lord? If so, it may be because of the sin of un-forgiveness. God cannot violate his perfect nature and overlook our sin. Un-forgiveness is a common stronghold the devil has in the lives of many of God’s children. We believe lies about forgiveness and live according to those lies. Even if you’re not struggling with un-forgiveness, you are connected with someone who is. It [...] Read more »
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