DEVOTION - Day 21

Colossians 3:13 (New International Version)

13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Forgiveness is a basic principle in Christianity. It is something that we all want and need for our lives in order to experience the full grace of Jesus Christ. We all have done things in our lives that have been against His will for us and have been contrary to what we know we should have done, and we need forgiveness for our actions.

However, the harder concept with forgiveness is not necessarily that we need it – it is that we need to give it out ourselves. People wrong us multiple times throughout our days here on earth and so the practice of forgiveness should be one that we are accustomed to giving to people. But, I would venture to guess that there may be someone in your life that you think has done you too wrong to forgive them.

So, who is it? What person have you stopped talking to, stopped having a relationship with because they did something to you and you refuse to forgive them? Who is that family member, friend, co-worker that needs your forgiveness just the same as “the Lord forgave you”?

You see, by you refusing to forgive them, that hurts you much more than them. Often we try to make someone feel pain by not forgiving them. But the reality is that it hurts us far worse because we are obsessed with what they’ve done and they have moved on with their lives.

For me, I find that when someone attacks my character – like saying that I intentionally did something to make their jobs harder in some way – it is harder for me to forgive them. I take it quite personally and tend to dwell on their words to the point that it makes me more upset than when it first happened. However, they have often times moved on with life and my unforgiveness is doing nothing but impacting, in a negative way, my own life. But, when I forgive them and then work to mend the broken relationship, my world improves instantaneously.

So, pray that God will help you identify unforgiveness in your life. Pray, using the person’s or people’s name(s), that He will give you the heart to truly forgive them. Ask God for the strength to restore the relationship and to minister to the other person through your forgiveness.