Difficulty in forgiving?

Holding a GRUDGE, harboring BITTERNESS, having a hard time FORGIVING? Reflect on the following passages:

“…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”
1 Timothy 1:15b

“…Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Colossians 3:13b

“It is when we realize that we are no better off than the other person, that we are not more righteous and yet Christ died to forgive us of our sins, that is when find His grace to forgive others.

Popular thought espouses that the key to forgiveness is thinking that we are above the other person and that he/she is so beneath us that we should just forgive him or her. This actually produces arrogance, pride and self-righteousness.

Forgiveness comes by realizing that we are not above him or her but that we are in exactly the same boat, that we ourselves have sinned and are flawed in many ways. We owe God a bigger debt and yet in Christ He forgave us. This grace transforms our hearts so that we are able to forgive.

Forgiving others does not come by focusing on the wrong done to us and then mustering the goodness in our hearts to forgive. We don’t really have it. It comes by focusing on our own debt and God’s love and grace in forgiving us.

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Related posts:
The grace to say ‘No!’

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