Forgiveness

This weekend I listened to a great sermon by one of my favorites, Bayless Conley, on the topic of forgiveness.

The premise is that we are not asked to forgive, we are not told to forgive if we can find it within us. We are commanded to forgive and that “For if you forgive other people 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.

We must forgive. Faith is linked to love. And love requires forgiveness. And as this sermon explains, in some cases, persistent unforgiveness can actually damage us physically.

The sermon details the experience of one lady who refused to forgive her father for over a decade and was plagued with an endless migraine.

Aside from the pain her unforgiveness caused both her and her father, from the outside it is very sad. A waste of years that could have been spent in love.

My own father experienced a similar situation. He and his first wife had one daughter. My dad had been an alcoholic and drug addict in his 20s and was not a good husband during those years. After finding Jesus and getting sober, sadly, his wife decided she didn’t want to continue the marriage. After reconciling himself to this and moving on, my dad met my mom at work. They fell in love and married a few years later. My dad’s only daughter was 15 at that time, and after a conflict with my dad, never spoke to him again.

My dad left the door open. And seeing how my father loved my siblings and I so much after we came along I can imagine he loved her just as much. What a wound it must have been to him that she never came around.

But my dad died 6 years ago and she had never reconciled. Her children will never know him, and she never got a chance to really realize how much he loved her.

It’s a trite expression but it’s true, to forgive is to set a prisoner free, only to discover the prisoner is you.

Forgiveness is a beautiful thing. It’s more than a strength of character. It’s more than the right thing to do. It is a fulfillment of our obedience to our Lord, who has forgiven more of us than we can comprehend.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Luke 6:37