The process of forgiving.

Love your enemies? All of them? Surely not! It is nearly impossible for me to even think of them, let alone like them and surely not love them. Jesus must not know what they did to me. If He knew, He'd understand why I just cannot love my enemies...right?

Luke 6:27-28 But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Jesus couldn't have said it more clear here when He tells us how to deal with our enemies. He gives us several actions to take towards them; LOVE, DO GOOD, BLESS, & PRAY. Those are things we're okay with doing, to people we get along with. It's easy to pray for our children, or our spouses. Do good? No problem, we can do good things for those who do good for us. To the person(s) who caused us pain; love isn't the verb we want to put in the same sentence with their name. Surely God will understand if we don't feel like forgiving them. Besides, the pain is too real, the scar too deep, the hate all too real. Can we slip by without forgiving? 

 Matthew 6:15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

That takes my excuses and reasons and blows them right out the window. According to Jesus, if we harbor unforgiveness towards others, He does the same towards us. No 'if, and's, or but's about it'. There are no shades of gray when it comes to God. What He says, He means. We must forgive! If you really think about it, God has forgiven us many more times than we will ever have to forgive someone. He did it, even when He knew we would mess up again. He didn't rub the pain it caused Him in our faces, didn't make us wallow and beg. He simply forgave us because He loves us. Of course, we aren't nowhere near that perfect, and cannot simply forgive and be done. God knows that. The main thing is to begin the road to forgiveness. It's a process, one that takes time, prayer, learning and lots of healing. As Stormie Omartian said, "Forgiveness doesn't make the other person right, it makes you free."

We all have had someone in our lives that has hurt us in some way or another, and we find ourselves with a choice. We can either take the road of anger, which leads to resentment, and eventually hate and bitterness. This road is a slow poison to the soul, eating away at everything. It eventually becomes who you are, nothing good comes from it. Or we can take the other road, the road to forgiveness. Though it isn't always a peaceful journey, it is the way Christ wants us to go. Besides, we know we never walk any road alone. He is there with us, He knows it's not a easy task. Psalm 34:18 says "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted..." He is close to you when people do you wrong. He restores your joy!

 Isaiah 53:3,5 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Jesus was a man 'familiar with suffering'. He who did no wrong was burdened by humanity's sins. If anyone had the right to hold a grudge against someone, it would be Him. He did so much for us, and yet we sometimes do so little for Him. Yet, in His unending love, He chooses to forgive us of our mistakes, and mess-ups time and time again. He is the example of grace. We don't deserve His forgiveness, but He chooses to forgive anyway. We cannot expect Him to forgive us when we mess up and then we withhold it from others. What kind of Christian would we truly be? We are to be an example of Christ. 

Though forgiveness is a hard process, we can be free through it. There is nothing like letting go of the pain and anger and letting Christ mend our wounds. We can learn so much from the pain, the journey, and the end result. Besides, we are never too 'holy' to be free from sin. We all mess up, and I'm glad God forgives, and teaches others to forgive as well! 

-Megan