“Quite a nasty piece of work. Not the sort of person you'd want to have dinner with.”
[On the subject of Mr. Bean] Atkinson, Rowan
Now perhaps we have all felt that way about someone. But some guests are harder to get rid of than others. Of the hardest, to me, are the unwanted guests that enter my mind. Of the unwanted guest that can enter man’s mind, perhaps one of the hardest are thoughts brought about by wounds of others. Our minds go to them almost naturally, and once in the door they run through the rooms of your soul wreaking havoc. They cycle around producing vindictive thoughts, anger, and darkness. Like an unwanted guest that shows up at your door, and you can’t seem to get rid of.
Yet God is more merciful to us.
Psalm 86:5 says; “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, - And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.”
How comforting it is when we think of God we think of one who is “ready to forgive.”
Then we came to a passage like this… “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others” …
Now praying that is almost frightful. It’s like saying, “God I want you to forgive me to the level I am willing to forgive others.” Now this seems terribly unfair to me. God is all powerful – so powerful He has the ability to forget. I am not, and I have the hardest time forgetting old wounds.
The best definition of forgiveness that I’ve run across (I believe Jay Adams) is something like; “a commitment to not bring the matter up again, to the offender, to others and to yourself.” Sometimes, good definitions make all things possible. Consider, it is first of all “a commitment.” It is committing to process until it becomes a reality. Forgiveness is a journey, a pilgrimage, and a destiny. Of the three commitments; not bringing it up to yourself is the hardest (and takes the longest). Yet this is the point in which we are made free. It is the point where old wounds stop invading our minds and we brood over them. One might say, the point of forgetfulness.
It’s like keeping an unwanted guest outside the door, until you forget his is out there. That is where the journey of forgiveness leads to – it leads to freedom.
Now one of the principles of forgiveness, is to remove an obstacle that is between two persons – or between God and man – that leads back to an open relationship.
Consider what 1 John 1:7 says: - “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
To walk in the light means walking in God’s truth as well as being enabled by His life. God wants to empower His church. He wants to send the blood of Jesus Christ through the whole body. Now when scripture speaks about blood, it is speaking about life. The blood of Jesus Christ is the life of Jesus Christ.
Leviticus 17:11 tells us “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”
