I'm forgiven, I forgive....

Today I did one of the hardest things I have ever done, I forgave.

Did you realize that this is a command from GOD? I didn't until recently.

Don't get me wrong I did not just wake up this morning and decide to forgive but it has taken some time for me to realize how holding onto UN-forgiveness is a sin and how it negatively affected me and seperated me from GOD.

I have been in prayer asking the LORD to show me who I need to forgive. I wrote those names down, I also wrote down what they did to me and how it made me feel. I also included myself and GOD. Of all the people I had on my list the most difficult was to forgive myself. Things I had done in the past, the way I had treated people, the way I spoke, the concequences of my actions, the way I could have been a positive influence on people instead of causing them to stumble in their faith or to turn away from GOD by seeing how a "christian" was talking, acting and reacting.

I had to choose to forgive everyone and everything they did, notice I said choose. It's our choice whether we forgive someone or not. Some like to say "forgive and forget", this is impossible. Our memory is so powerful that an innumerable amount of things can be stored but once you choose to forgive you will feel a great weight lifted from you. These poeple and things will not be removed from your memory but they will no longer be a painful memory you are trying to keep from remembering.

Each of the people I listed were a chain by Satan tying me to them. My list started out short but as I prayed the list became longer and longer as GOD brought people to my mind. Things I thought were no big deal I still forgave them. Imagine walking around with 30 or 40 chains dragging behind you. After a while you won't be able to go one any longer, each one is affecting you by it's weight but as you forgive each person a chain is cut, you start to feel the effects as each chain is cut until eventually you have cut every chain and you are finally free.
Maybe a better example would be to take a backpack and fill it with 30-40 rocks. Put the backpack on and start walking around. At first it is no problem but after a while you start to notice the additional weight, after a while it starts to wear you down until finally one year you decide enough is enough. You start taking each rock out one by one and the backpack is lighter and lighter. Finally it's empty. Who can't carry an empty backpack? You would look silly but you could carry it on your back until the day you die.

I read a book "The Most Powerful Prayer On Earth" by Peter Horrobin and would recommend that everyone read this. It will help you to understand the power of forgiveness and the destruction of UN-forgiveness.

Below are scriptures commanding us to forgive.

The Lord's Prayer Matthew 6:9-13
9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors
13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Matthew 6:14-15
14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 18:34-35
34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

Mark 11:25
25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

Colossians 3:13
13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.


When I realized that if I don't forgive then GOD won't forgive me it really opened my eyes.
I think the most important forgiveness in the bible is when JESUS said in Luke 23:34"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
Can you imagine going through what CHRIST went through during his crucifixion and still forgiving them and asking GOD to forgive them? My forgiving people of what they have done to me in the past is nothing compared to this.

My forgiveness does not stop here, it will be on-going. I am going to take the next 42 days, since I am 42 yrs old, to pray about each year of my life and ask GOD to open my mind to something that may have occurred during that year that I still have not forgiven someone or myself for. I am going to keep a journal so as not to miss anything that GOD has shown me.

My prayer today is:
LORD I ask you to open my mind and spirit to anyone that I have not forgiven or anything I have done that I have not forgiven myself for. I ask that you give me the strength to honestly forgive them and to release that chain from my soul. Even simple things can chain us down so I ask that when something small occurs to me that I forgive myself or that person on the spot. Allow me to be a light for you and to never return to the life I once led. LORD I forgive myself from my past and ask you to forgive me so that there will be nothing between us but love and friendship. Please continue to use me for your glory and guide me in my life. Amen