Forgive Like Christ (Pt. 1)

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

Forgiveness is surely one of the most misunderstood concepts in Christianity. Despite the fact that we are all called to forgive as our Father in Heaven forgives, misunderstandings are widespread. In today and tomorrows blog I want to broaden your understanding of what it means to truly forgive.

Forgiveness is not initially about the person who wronged us; it's about us. If we will not forgive someone who failed to meet our expectations, we start to change on the inside. We grow in anger and resentment. The quality of our own life continuously suffers and in this way, we compound the wrongdoing until it becomes something far more damaging than it originally was. One of the most important reasons we must forgive is that we cannot grow into the mature Christian whom Jesus is calling us to be with all that hurt and animosity building up inside us. Forgiveness is that act by which we release ourselves from our own prison of bitterness. 

Forgiveness does not require that the wrongdoer apologize or is remorseful. It does not even require that they are aware of the fact that they hurt us. All that is required is that we simply say, "I'm letting this go. I will not let this incident change me in any way. I'm getting over it." What the wrongdoer does or does not do should make no difference in our decision to move past it and begin our healing. As we release them from their duty to remedy the harm that was done, we release ourselves from the burden of making them accountable to their responsibility.

Tomorrow we will look deeper into what forgiveness is and isn’t.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Brown Church Development Group is conducting a survey to determine what C3’s future ministry and building needs are.  I am asking everyone in our congregation to fill out this short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/celebrationcongregation Please do so ASAP!

On Sunday, July 27^th, Todd Brown, CEO of BCDG, will be joining us for our three morning services to share his testimony, what BCDG is all about and some of the results of their in-depth study of our church.  Don’t miss this!