Forgiveness

And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing. Mark 11: 25

Studying this verse in church a couple of weeks ago, I found it amazingly easy to talk about forgiveness. In practice, however, I often find it more difficult. Even this week I found myself rehearsing in my mind disputes I had experienced with some of my coworkers. Minor frustrations that occur naturally in the business world were elevated by an unforgiving spirit to major divisions. The results were damaging my witness and relationships with these people and God.

What we learned in class and what I'm working to put into practice is that Christ links our forgiveness of others to God’s forgiveness of us. I think that's because our ability to forgive is an indication of our relationship with Christ. We are forgiven of everything we've done. It really is unbelievable to think that we would turn around and not forgive others.

So what do we do? I believe we humbly ask God to help us and to teach us to forgive. We can also pray for those who have wronged us. Our prayers can be for God's will to be accomplished in their lives. It's hard to hold something against someone your looking out for.

With all the changes going on in our church we need to practice forgiveness. We need it not just to build each other up and avoid divisions. We need to forgive, so that we can have a closer relationship with God. That's where our power lies. When our lives are filled with bitter unforgiveness we remain powerlessly wrapped up in chains of our own making.

Let's pray for God to break those chains.