Forgiveness Sake

They say forgive and forget, but can you actually, truly forget?

Depending on the severity of the offence, the memory is still there most times. And it can be hard to let go of. Like I said, depending on the severity of the offence.

I use my own experiences, situations I’ve witnessed and the creativity God has blessed me with to encourage you.

I was faced with a situation I had every reason not to forgive. I had a misunderstanding with someone. Communication ceased immediately after an argument. The offence committed as a result of the argument was beyond my understanding. I tried to make sense out of it; stick pieces of the puzzle together, but nothing. I deserved a little pay back, but not this.

There are things that you do when you’re angry with someone, but the person had now gone too far. The offence hurt so badly I didn’t know who this person was anymore. The person also came to the realisation of the gravity of the offence. It was that bad.

I asked The Holy Spirit if He expected me to forgive. Like really. Because this was now overwhelming. The Holy Spirit even told me I had every right to be angry and every reason to not forgive but told me to not let the sun go down with anger in my heart. In other words to quickly forgive and move on. Sorry, what?

He also told me I had no right to not forgive the person because if Christ came to die for myself as bad as I was and for as bad as the person’s offence was, I had no right to hold any grudge towards the person. The battle was no longer mine but God’s.

Me forgiving the person was one of them things were if I did, anybody that I would tell of this situation would have told me to never be friends with this person again. Or even worse, would have insulted me for forgiving the person.

I calmed down, put myself together, and decided to forgive the person. In early days of the situation, I listened to the Holy Spirit’s advice, but said to Him, “I will forgive, but you’re gonna have to give me time. I believe in the love of Christ but it’s a bit too much for me right now.’

I was so annoyed at myself for considering forgiving the person up to the point where I said to The Holy Spirit, “Ayeee! Like I’ll forgive them yeah, but just know it wasn’t Tish that forgave them, it was The Holy Spirit that picked up my tongue and said those words. Weren’t coming from me.” - It hurt that much.

But The Holy Spirit said to forgive with that heart was as good as not having forgiven the person. So I renewed my mind, studied the scriptures and conditioned my heart before speaking to the person. I read several books, watched YouTube videos, I wrote down confessions, I wrote down prayers and spoke them out loud everyday until my heart was perfectly conditioned to forgive from my heart. During the process, it never made any sense, but my assurance was that if Christ shed this love abroad in my heart, then I too was able to train myself to have that forgiving spirit just as He had when He did what He did on calvary.

After forgiving the person, I immediately felt the effect of my action. It was all worth it. I had reached another level of my love-walk with God. I had now arrived at this place where there was no offence I couldn’t forgive. I also grew to another level of revelation of the love of Christ. I came to an understanding that forgiving is not just about moving on but about seeing beyond the offence and choosing to love; seeing and loving God’s children, whether born again or not as God does.

I’ve realised that being able to easily forgive makes you a greater character, I believe it makes you more mature, gets you to understand the love of Christ more and also helps you in your mission as a Christian, which is to reconcile the whole world unto The King.

I’ve not forgotten what’s happened. Not to say that I am holding on to anything, but to say I have moved on and have forgiven the person from the bottom of my heart. Today this person is someone I pray for and am grateful to God for. It’s amazing how much God has used this same person as a helper of destiny in my life. What if I hadn’t forgiven the person?

So here’s a challenge, I dare you to forgive that person of their biggest offence committed towards you. You’ll be grateful. You can trust me on this.