Think of the forgiveness process like making a purchase with a credit card. Imagine that you go to a jewelry counter, choose a beautiful diamond bracelet, and slap down the plastic. You sign your name on the receipt....and the bracelet is yours. This illustrates the willful act of forgiveness.

Then come the monthly payments. Because you bought an expensive bracelet, you have to pay month by month over a long period. So you are both the individual who bought the jewelry and the person who continues to pay.

In the same way, forgiveness is both an act and a process. You make a choice at a specific moment in time and the deal is sealed and done. But you choose over time to extend the forgiveness. You make the installments required by your initial decision to forgive.

                        Why Forgive?

1. God commands us to forgive.

The Bible tells us to "Be kind to one another, tender--hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you" [Ephesians 4:32 ]

2. Forgiveness is part of the character of God.

God initially extended us credit. Each time we sin against Him and repent, He makes an installment payment to our account. God forgives us 490 times + much more!

3. Forgiveness is good for us.

Unforgiveness is like adding fertilizer to the "root of bitterness [that springs] up" and defiles everything it touches [ Hebrews 12:15 ], beginning with the individual who harbors the resentment. Unforgiveness can destroy us--literally.

The very individuals who have wronged us continue to control us when we refuse to forgive them. Perhaps you know the feeling: You can't forget the individual or the pain he/she inflicted on you. When you sit down to enjoy a delicious meal, that person sits across the table from you, like a ghost. You find yourself driving down the road, carrying on imagined conversations with that individual, telling him what you wish you could do to him/her or where you hope God will send him/her.  His/her control over you will end only when, through the power of Christ, you forgive that person for the specific wrongs he/she committed against you.

Tags: forgiveness

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