Do you think of God as some mean, ugly, vindictive monster? After all, He said if we don’t forgive others, He will not forgive us (Matthew 6:14-15).
I do not believe that vindictiveness is in God’s heart. His heart’s desire is that He wants everyone to come to Him and be saved (2 Peter 3:9). He came to this earth to show us how to live and then died and rose again to pay for our sins. That is not vindictiveness, but love and justice.
I believe that when He asks us to forgive, He is trying to move us to become more like Him. He wants us to be able to forgive so that we can get rid of bitterness, anger, hate and vengeance. When we cannot forgive, these negative emotions swirl in us. They cause us to respond, even to those we love, in ways that hurt them (and us). They cause us to be depressed, and even suicidal. God does not want us to live that way! He wants His love, peace, joy, purpose and fulfillment to fill our hearts.
In Matthew 18:23-35, Jesus told the story of a king who forgave his servant the equivalent of fifteen years of wages! The king represented God. After being forgiven, that servant was ready to put a fellow servant in jail for one hundred days wages. Forgiving one hundred day’s wages would be difficult. But isn’t forgiving fifteen years of wages? The second servant’s debt was about one twenty-thousandth of one percent of the debt that was forgiven the first servant.1 What a contrast!
Isn’t that how it is with us and our need for God’s forgiveness versus the atrocities others have done to us? It is so difficult for us to forgive the horrible things done to us! Yet we desire God to forgive us of the excessive wrongs that we have done. He is very willing. He just wants us, out of gratitude for His forgiveness, to forgive each other.
When I have to forgive someone, it is difficult. I think about all the ways they have hurt me. It is easy to rehearse their injustice to me. When I stop and think of all that I have done wrong, I am humbled. When I think of what they have gone through, I am more understanding.
This week, when thinking of that person (or persons) you do not want to forgive, prayerfully try and understand their life path and what might have triggered their desire to hurt you. Remember all of the things you desire God to forgive you. Weigh them in the balance. Can you begin to understand that you may need to forgive?
God’s freedom, peace and joy wait for you when you are able to forgive.
- Harper Study Bible (Harper and Row 1962) p. 1469 Zondervan, www.zondervan.com
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