Forgiveness: Choose It & Pursue It! Don't Refuse It!

Forgiveness is a choice as well as a privilege. One reason for choosing forgiveness is personal sanity and peace. Refusing forgiveness is choosing an embittered and tormented life. Internalizing anger, hurt and grief means hanging on to frustration, disappointment and bitterness that diminish the capacity for happiness.

Someone explained to me how difficult it was to let bygones be bygones. She was referring to a person she had loved and trusted, but from whom she had experienced rejection. Feelings of guilt flooded her conscience for being unable to forgive completely which left her with feelings of insecurity and the absence of peace.

Forgiveness has to be pursued by asking God to unlock every chamber of your heart and soul that may be harboring the slightest trace of resentment and hatred. Present and future happiness cannot compete with these disruptive feelings. Forgiveness depends on trustworthiness and honesty. Forgiveness provides hope for a life of peace and security. 

________________________

Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.

~Matthew 6:12 Good News Bible

“I have told you all this so that you may find your peace in me. You will find trouble in the world – but, never lose heart, I have conquered the world!”

~John 16:33 Phillips – The New Testament in Modern English

“You didn’t choose me! I chose you! I appointed you to go and produce lovely fruit always, so that no matter what you ask for from the Father, using my name, he will give it to you. I demand that you love each other.”

~John 15:16-17 The Living Bible

Life-Giving Trust

What image comes to mind when you hear the word control? Then consider the words power, freedom and unafraid of confrontation. Control has a healthy dimension as well as a pathological side that diminishes freedom of choice. Parents exercise a healthy control over children until they’re capable of good judgement and independence.

 

There is a fragile alliance between freedom and control, given that the alliance eventually builds a bridge toward independence, self-control and maturity. Two basic factors affect this alliance. Trust allows gradual independence for an adolescent on the way to young adulthood, and self-control implies good judgement is possible.

Life is full of situations that produce anxiety and insecurity. However, God offers us hope through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which builds a bridge to inner peace and security. Proverbs 29:11 confirms that “A wise person keeps himself or herself under control.” With this as a consistent objective, problems are more manageable.