A Short Story on Forgiveness

The issue of forgiveness is a very tough one but very necessary for our Salvation in Christ Jesus, Not to be ignored to say the least,  I am one who has had to forgive a lot and especially recently because I  have come to realize that it's no use holding unto the hurts and offenses most of all the Holy Spirit has ,made me know that God is the Judge and not me. Exodus 14:14 14The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. AMEN!

When the Holy Spirit is in you and the fruit of the Spirit operates in you, you  must become a broken Christian and  learn to forgive your enemies no matter how hard it looks or seems. "I am a witness"  because, I know I have said in time past, I will never forgive this person or that person but, today the good Lord has taken all that strife and bitterness from my life and turned it into love. Sometimes I Wonder what happened to me!? there are times when my family would expect me to react violently  the way I normally do  in time past and all I can say now is . . . leave it to God, forgive them, God will take control, don't swear, don't curse, don't revenge, this too will pass, God will never forsake us, we shall overcome, lets give them a chance to defend their action, maybe they didn't do it deliberately and so on.

I know they get irritated at times but I am changed in Christ our Lord , I always ask myself what would Jesus do in this situation and when the answer comes to my Spirit I just let God work it out for me by His Special Grace.

HOW HEAVY IS Bag

One of my teachers had each one of us bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes. For every person we'd refuse to forgive in our life, we were told to choose a potato, write on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag. Some of our bags, as you can imagine, were quite heavy.
We were then told to carry this bag with us everywhere for one week, putting it beside our bed at night, on the car seat when driving, next to our desk at work.
The hassle of lugging this around with us made it clear what a weight we were carrying spiritually, and how we had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget, and keep leaving it in embarrassing places.
Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty slime.
This was a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity!
Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person, and while that's true, it clearly is also a gift for ourselves!
So the next time you decide you can't forgive someone, ask yourself...
Isn't MY bag heavy enough?
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. - Mark 11:25

Think on This

A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, and the waste of spirit. --Hannah More

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?-- Abraham Lincoln

I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note--torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one. -- Henry Ward Beecher