Ridgell's Originals

It is one of the hardest sayings of Jesus.  Hard to hear and hard to do.

Forgive me my sins as I forgive those who sin against me.  I am happy to pray the first part of that prayer.  Choke a little on the second.  

When Jesus teaches how to pray in Matthew 6, this is the only part of the prayer that he comments on.  If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven.

So here are a few practical hints on forgiving others.

God has forgiven so much in your life (at least if you are honest enough to admit it).  And you have hurt people by your sin.  Let that sink in.

I want God to forgive me so I better figure this out.

You can only forgive sins against you.  So you are not forgiving people for anyone else, including God.  Your forgiveness does not affect their salvation.  But it may affect yours.

You will not forgive perfectly but you better be trying.

Do not dwell on what people have done to you.  Makes it hard to forgive.

You probably will not forget it.  Forgiveness may be the conscious choice to forgive in spite of the memory.

Forgiveness is the decision not to bring it up again.

Don't let others feed your hurt.

Don't live in the past.

Live in your today.

This is one of the hardest sayings of Jesus and one of the hardest things to do.

But it is not optional.

God forgive me my sins as I live in this world working on forgiveing those who sin against me and mine.  

# posted by Steve @ 5:00 AM