Losing A Grudge
Thursday February 25, 2016
Often the barrier to our letting go of grudges is our unwillingness to grace others as we have been graced by God. Sometimes our desire for revenge gets in the way of forgiveness. We want to be forgiven for the sins we have committed but want others to suffer the penalty we judge they deserve for the sins they have committed against us. This is not how the Kingdom of God works! After being brutally beaten and nailed to the cross for all the sin of humankind Jesus said,
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34 NKJV)
Jesus died for all the wrongs done to us and by us and through His death and resurrection we are reconciled to our Heavenly Father. To remain in a state of unforgiveness after we have been enlightened will surely create more hurt for ourselves and others. Why not let Jesus heal us as we turn over our pain and resentment to Him and receive forgiveness and healing in exchange? Why not forgive others their trespasses, as God has forgiven ours? Why not be guided in all our ways by the love of God?
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1a;3 NIV)
Forgiveness must be from the heart. We need to allow God to bring to the surface, the mental agony, the emotional pain and feelings of resentment we feel toward those who hurt us. We need to acknowledge and forgive from the heart, the hurt and hate we have covered up. We need to ask God to touch our emotional core and to heal us and set us free from all that has been wounded within us. These instructions may appear challenging to us but they are not impossible. We are not required to say that others don’t deserve punishment, only to turn the judgment over to God, the righteous judge. We don’t give up arguments because someone else is necessarily right, but for the sake of our recovery and for peace with God, with ourselves and with others. We can’t change other people but we can ask God for the courage to change ourselves. Hanging on to a bitter grudge and seeking revenge only sickens the soul. Bitterness acts like a cancer that eats us up on the inside and spreads to others, injuring them as well. Someone has said, “Holding resentment or bitterness against another person is like us drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
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