Tuesday, April 7, 2009

What Jesus Said About Forgiving One Another

Matthew 6:

12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

' 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:

21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times
23"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents[b] was brought to him. 25Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
29"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
30"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 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."

There are 3 areas of forgiveness:

1) God – does He need forgiving – No, but He knows you are mad at Him because something did not work out for you, you were a victim of abuse as a child, a spouse left you, whatever has you angry with God – forgive Him
2) Forgive Yourself – quit the self hatred and loathing. Ask God for the grace to forgive yourself, whether it’s poor decisions you made, abusing your body, quitting school – what ever it is…forgive yourself
3) Forgive others – when we say we will forgive but not forget, we are still in bondage to those who hurt us, they have a power position in our life and we open the door for satan to act in our lives. In the natural, we want revenge, but God is supernatural and gives us the grace we need to forgive. A measuring stick I use to determine if I have truly forgiven someone is to see if I can earnestly pray for God to bless the person.

We need to forgive the living and many times people who are dead. The forgiveness exercise works for all types of situations. You can do it silently as you lay in bed. You will not believe the physical, spiritual, and emotional healing which comes when you forgive everyone. Sometimes you are forgiving people for something which is not real, other times it is very real. You may need to forgive doctors and hospitals or other institutions.

Corrie Ten Boom has a powerful testimony she shared about forgiving the man who betrayed her and her family to the Nazis which led to their arrest. Most of her family died in Concentration camps. She was also able to forgive a guard who did not recognize her and wanted to shake her hand after she gave a speech.

The Bible tells us we must forgive or the God cannot forgive us. I have enough sin in my life without adding unforgiveness to the list. I need all the forgiveness I can get from our Heavenly Father.

Part 1: Hold your hands in the air, palms up (like you are releasing a butterfly)
Hold up to the Lord all the things a person has done that bother you or has hurt you. Pretend you are stacking them up in your hands. When you are finished with your list, turn your hands over in a symbolic release to the Lord.

Then pray something similar to: Lord Jesus, I give you each one of these things and ask that you take them and pour your love and healing power through them. I thank you, Lord, that you have the power and grace to redeem them. I ask you, Lord to release the pain and hurt that has been involved which each one of these things (List them if you need to do so) that you lift it from ______________(their name)’s heart, mind, and spirit. I ask you to lift the burden of these things from ____________ shoulders. I give all this to you Lord, and trust you to deal with them. Amen

Part 2: Hold your hands in the air again, palms up (same as above) and make a stack of things that bother the person your are forgiving about yourself, these can be real things or imagined things. When done, turn your hands over in a symbolic release to the Lord.

Then pray something similar to: Lord Jesus, I ask you to pour your love and healing power over these things, each and every one of them. I ask you to take them, deal with them, and release them from ____________________. I trust you to heal the hurt and pain. Amen

Part 3: With hands in the air, make a list of your hearts desire for this person. Turn your hands over and release it to the Lord. Pray something similar to:
Lord Jesus, I give person’s name to you, I thank you that you are able to handle him better than anyone else. Bring your perfect will for _______________ and let your love pour into ______________ and your healing power flow over ____________. I release him into your care. Amen

Part 4: Hold your hands in the air, make a list of things you would like Jesus to do in your life – now…then turn your hands over and pray something similar to:

Lord, I release these things to you and ask you to pour your love, mercy and grace into them. I thank you that I can and do trust you with these things. Surround me w/ your heavenly angels. Show me once more how much you love me. Amen

4 comments:

luvmy4sons said...

Oh Amen. Good stuff. So important. Thank you for posting it.

twinkle said...

Forgiveness is such a powerful way of being a servant of Christ. I love this focus for this Holy Week. He is the epitome of the word "forgiveness."
Hope this spreads to all who need to hear this message.
Blessings to you this week!

Wendy said...

Forgiveness is very important. Forgiveness heals. Thanks for the reminder. There are always areas in life that could use compassion and forgiveness.
Blessings

annie's eyes said...

I was realizing this weekend that I need to forgive someone's husband for the way he treats her. I was handling it like a flag of remembrance (defiance) toward him. I have many areas I need to dig deeper and do this exercise. I think I will print it out b/c I have a feeling I may need to wash/rinse/repeat a few of these. Thank the Lord, He knows our frame, and gives us a way to release all the toxins in our bodies that cause us harm. Thanks so much for typing this up this morning. It could be life changing. Love, Annette G