Day 32 15 Day Challenge

[cleanaturalady]

 Psalm 32

I love this Psalm.  It starts out by letting us know that we are blessed because our wrongs are not counted against us.  Wouldn't it be great if this were true with people in our lives as well as with God?  It would be wonderful to not suffer from a grudge against us for saying the wrong thing or somehow offending someone?  This is the way it is with God.  Once we say "Sorry, I didn't mean it" it is not only forgiven but also forgotten.

Unfortunately in our lives it is not as easy to forgive and forget as it is with God.  Nowhere is it driven home more precisely to us that we are not God than it is in this situation.  It is so obvious that God is capable of things that are so beyond our reach that it humbles us, and puts us in our place.  God is God in we are not.

Unforgiven wrongs car be so detrimental to our lives, though, so we need to really try to be more like God in this way.  The detriment can occur when it is a wrong that someone did against us that we are unable to forgive or forget, or when it is something that we have ourselves done that we are unable to forgive ourselves for.  These things can cause not only emotional turmoil, but also physical illness to befall us, studies have shown this to be true.  Most of us know a lot of anecdotal evidence that also points in the direction of nonforgiveness having an adverse affect on ones health.

Not forgiving someone only hurts the person who is unforgiving and only serves to keep us under the control of the person who wronged us in the first place.  Who wants that?  At the same time, if we do not forgive ourselves of our own wrong doings, we are controlled by our own self hatred and loathing.  None of these emotions are healthy for us, nor are they what God has in mind for us as believers living in his grace.

So, we have to forgive, but how?  It is wrong to think of forgiveness as an emotion that is going to all of a sudden wash over us and make everything all better all at once.  Forgiveness is an action.  We have to make a decision to do it.  Every day.  For as long as it takes.  We have to make up our minds that we are tired of living our lives as a slave to nonforgiveness and bad feelings.  Then we rely on prayer and God's grace to cover those bad things that happened to us (or the ones we did).  We continue day after day to renew our resolve to live in the light of forgiveness, grace and mercy.  Then one day we wake up and to our surprise we no longer hold that grudge we once held.

It is a wonderful and freeing feeling.

© KDV 2009