What You Do When Someone Hurts You … You Give Them “The Gift of Forgiveness”
Scripture
Luke 17
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Give us more faith!”
Observation
I know someone that most of his children won’t have anything to do with him because of the way he mistreated their mother and how badly he hurt them. It has been years. When he tries to send Christmas presents to his children and to his grandchildren the gifts are refused and returned. Recently one of his children and her husband spoke to him and forgave him. They are now beginning to rebuild their broken relationship … How beautiful is that!
The children of this person are all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. I grieve over this because I know that it hurting his children even more than it is hurting him. Since they are holding a grudge and refusing to forgive him they will suffer way more than he will. It will affect all of their relationships. They will never get to enjoy the Christian life in a way that God intended as long as they refuse to give him the Gift of Forgiveness!
Forgiveness is not something that a person earns. Sometimes we want to set down rules for the person who has hurt us and tell them that they have to do this and that and then we will forgive them. Jesus says, “If your brother or sister in God’s family does something wrong, warn them. If they are sorry for what they did, forgive them. Even if they do something wrong to you seven times in one day, but they say they are sorry each time, you should forgive them.”
When you and I get hurt by someone our human tendency is to get even with them. Resentment builds and before long it blinds us to God’s truth and we begin to rationalize why we can’t forgive the person. Peter asked Jesus once, “Lord, when someone won’t stop doing wrong to me, how many times must I forgive them? Seven times?” Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question was, “I tell you, you must forgive them more than seven times. You must continue to forgive them even if they do wrong to you seventy-seven times.
Did you notice that the Lord used the word “must” when He responded to Peter’s question about forgiveness? Forgiveness for believers is not something that is optional. We must forgive. They don’t deserve it, true, so we must give them forgiveness as a gift.
Who do you need to forgive? Who needs your gift of forgiveness? Why not forgive them right now and let them know that you have forgiven them. God is all about reconciliation. There is nothing more important in life than relationships and keeping them healthy.
It doesn’t depend on the other person that has wronged you it depends on you.
Un-forgiveness is so unlike our Heavenly Father and so uncharacteristic of His children.
You can’t lead a godly life if you refuse to forgive someone. It is impossible.
Application
When I am wronged I will try to quickly respond and give the gift of forgiveness. How about you?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you know how my heart hurts for this father who desperately wants to be reconciled with his children. How he wants to be a grandpa to his grandchildren. I pray for Your divine intervention into this situation.
I pray that you will change the children’s hearts toward their father. Help them to be able to gift him with the gift of forgiveness. I am so glad that you have given me this wonderful gift. I am so glad that I won’t get what I deserve. I am glad that You quickly forgive my sins and don’t hold them against me!
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