The Power and Necessity of Forgiveness

What is the Christian life about? Simple answer, to fall deeper in love with God and be His hands and feet to a world in need. Isn’t that what the word says? LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and all your mind, and LOVE your neighbor as yourself. But this action is not so easy to put into practice. In order to live a lifestyle of love, we must necessarily walk in a river of forgiveness. Why? Think about it. People are difficult to live with. I mean honestly, if we are ever going to be the true hands and feet of Jesus, our lives need to represent Him in all that we do, and he not only loved us, but gave himself up in order to bring us forgiveness. Look at these scriptures- Colossians 3:13, Luke 6:37, Matthew 6:14-16, Mark 11:25. They all have one common topic, forgiveness. This subject is a core theme in Christianity. These verses state that to be forgiven, we must forgive. Now our unforgiveness does not jeopardize our salvation because we are saved by grace, but it can hinder, stunt, or even stop our growth in Christ. So if you want to remain complacent and stagnant, then continue to live a life of unforgiveness, but to progress in your walk with Christ, FORGIVE. You cannot go deeper with Christ with a root of unforgiveness in your life, because that root will spread like a cancer through your body.
Here are some of God’s examples of forgiveness. In Nehemiah 9:17 it says, “They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them.” God had the right, the authority, and the power to desert and destroy this people, but look closely, it says he is a forgiving God. Another beautiful example of this forgiveness is found in Hosea. In the Old Testament there is a story of a man that God appointed as a prophet. He told Hosea, go and marry a prostitute, because through you, I want to demonstrate my forgiving love to my people. So Hosea married a woman named Gomar, and Gomar fled her husband time and again, selling her body to other men. Deserting her husband and shaming him to the point where she sold herself into slavery. Hosea went and bought her back. He brought her back into his bed, into intimacy, into love. You see, that is us. We are prostitutes who look for any and every other thing to put above God. A famous theologian said that our hearts are idol factories. But God forgives us. Look closely at the story of Hosea. Generally I find that when I am hurt once, I shut off to that person. I guard my heart so that I won’t feel pain again. However, Hosea did it differently. Like I said he brought his wife back into intimacy, into love, into relationship. We are called to go beyond the status-quo of turning our cheek and simply forgiving. We need to bring those people that have hurt us back into relationship with us.
Our responsibility is that. To forgive, offer grace, and bring people back into a loving relationship. We must follow God’s example that is demonstrated all throughout history. If we don’t have lives of forgiveness, Christ cannot flow through us. So live in this river of forgiveness, get caught in its flow, and let Christ work in and through you. This is how we are to live.