February 27, 2023
The troubles of my heart have enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins. Psalm 25:17-18
There seems to be a mystery associated with the concept of forgiveness. Yet I am instructed to forgive, even as Christ forgave [me] (Colossians 3:13). If I forgive someone who has wronged or hurt me, the immediate result is a deeper, more accurate understanding of the character of God. To know Him surpasses any other knowledge anywhere in the entire universe! To absorb the blow instead of lashing out is to gain a glimpse into what God has done for me. Ahead of time, He planned to absorb all of the pain and punishment for wrongs committed by sinful humans. God and His Son agreed upon the plan of salvation before the foundation of the world.
Forgiveness always benefits the forgiver. It is a release from the tedious activity of keeping a record of wrongs, as well as giving up my so-called “right” to pass a sentence on the one who has wronged me. It is a beautiful expression of trust in the Omniscient One who possesses all power to set everything right in His own time. In a real sense, forgiveness is the cornerstone of every relationship.
Grudge-holding is a character trait that our enemy the devil projects upon God, hoping that we will buy in to this false notion. But God, in a love and purity as yet indiscernible to our mundane and sin-damaged minds, not only planned ahead of time to provide for the forgiveness He knew I would need, but for His own sake will choose—in the mystery and power of divine love—not to remember how I have hurt Him and fallen short of His glory. Today, with the aid of God’s Holy Spirit, I resolve to faithfully—by His grace—walk the path that He lights for me.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Hebrews 8:10-12
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32