Saturday, August 9, 2008

Unforgiveness

I dont know why, but memorizing scripture has never been easy for me....I am not overly concerned about it... because His word does penetrate my heart.., but I cannot, verbatim recite scripture....

anyways...getting to the point of this post

last week in church the pastor was talking about unforgiveness

and how it causes such torment within the Christian...we bury
it, we hide it, it sits in the pit of the gut...and the simple
mention of someone's name or a past experience can cause the whole
body to suffer.....GRRRRRRR.... when we don't forgive...

we are to forgive 70 times 7 or is it 70 in Christ Jesus...anyways,
I know it is a LOT !!

In 1995, a crime committed against my daughter caused me so much anger, hatred, disdain and turmoil that I was certain I could never forgive the man who caused it. It wore at me constantly, would rise up from the very pit of my stomach and eat away at me.....more-so after I was born again in 1999; I began to look for scriptures that would support the fact that I did not have to forgive this person....in 2004 I was preparing to be baptised and I was tormented by the unforgiveness I had in my heart towards this person....I went to the pastor and he asked me if I WANTED to forgive him and I said, "no, I would rather see him burn in hell"....

and as I spoke those words, the Holy Spirit came over me and I sobbed and sobbed knowing very well that Jesus had forgiven me and I also am to forgive others....Now, I did not go to this man sitting in his jail cell and express this to him face to face...but in my heart..in my heart.....I forgave him for his wrong doing...could I be kind to this man if I were to see him...I am assured, yes I could......because I know the love of Jesus...

A couple of incidents in the past four or five years have reminded me that some make a conscious choice to hold on to stuff....out of pride or control issues
or sheer stubbornness

it has been very prominent in my marriage, my husband and I both unwilling to let go of past hurts and incidents..always reminding each other that you did this or I did that...and how much it hurt.....and I have found that wihout forgiveness, relationships suffer, they can't be nutured, they can't grow......the never will change...

and to forgive someone means you are willing to release that person from their wrong doing or offense .....

so being the expert I am at unforgiveness, I just want to encourage anyone who is facing it today....

please don't withhold the love of Jesus from another...forgive as Jesus forgave you...rebuild that which has been severed or broken....

and bring glory to our Lord.


I think I remembered
the important parts of
the scripture
blessings
donna

9 comments:

passing-thru said...

EXCELLENT POST !
GOOD WORDS INDEED ----
Spoken from "experience" Washed in His Blood, Baptised into His Spirit, forgiven and forgiving "others" and sharing here with the pilgrim pals

BLESSINGS ON U , DONNA

Thankyou for "sharing"

GOOD STUFF

Terry said...

My brother, David used to just love to ride his bike late at night on the quiet streets of Welland and just think.
One night a car stopped and a guy in the passenger side reached out and hit him in the head with a base ball bat and if it hadn't of been for a lady seeing him from her window, and calling the police who knows but he would have died right there and then. Well he did die a year later and me and my family found it so hard to forgive that guy. In fact some of the ones who weren't saved in our family would have gladly beat that guy up! We were just glad to know that David was a Christian and that he is in heaven but still the family, especially Mom and Dad Golden miss him terribly!
Well we did forgive the guy but it was an awful hard thing to do Donna!
God has forgiven us so what else COULD we do?
I could hardly believe it that the man who dropped the first atomic bomb, killing all those people was later saved! So hard for our mortal minds to understand!..
Good post Donna...Love Terry

Anonymous said...

I know it is hard Terry....doesnt it seem like sometimes we have forgiven someone for something really realy HUGE but cant quite get past the most insignificant and little things of our day to day...

I guess I am just processing lots of things right now...writing as I think...writing as God shows me the person I DONT WANT TO BE ANYMORE.....so I have to let HIM peel off the layers...

tell your mom I said hello....and Betty too!! And Dad Golden LOL !! I know there's more.....HA

passing-thru said...

Heh Donna -- what's this stuff with U using Terry's material !

Such as HA -- or EH or how about a Frosty Friday

INFRINGMENT -- where is a copyright cop when U need one -- I know, he is at the donut shop in Welland

Anonymous said...

not to be seen buying burnt muffins at mcdonalds !!! HA !!!

Terry said...

Dear Passing-thru. We taught that Donna to say eh when she was here in Canada but she still continues to say huh?
We need to keep her here a little longer.
When we had all those blog pets over for a visit that Adi and Princess returned to the States saying eh? with the best of them.. Ha!!
Now that will be the frosty Friday that I even have that amazing grace man's daughter, Princess over again, not with all of her insults and her drawing pictures of me chasing Bernie around with a broom!!!Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love Terry

passing-thru said...

Lol ----- HA EH

Good Stuff from good people

Have a great evening -

Remembering All of us in prayer -

hebrews 11:1 said...

Funny comments here on a serious post....well, that's Pals for you, eh?! LOLOL! :)

PT, remember the word I like for that copycat stuff?? Plagerism! We threw that around quite a bit last year on the Pals as I recall!

Oh, Mrs. Butler, Great Post!!! We just read that passage tonight in our Bible reading.

LPP

Vicki said...

Wow, Donna, this is a really powerful post. There comes a time in all our lives when I think it's only possible to forgive by the power of God's Spirit. It's always hard to get past the swirling emotions & pain, but when I just make the choice to forgive & trust the Lord to change my emotions, well, that seems to help me anyway.

Terry, bless your heart - I didn't know that about your brother David. What a terrible loss for the family (though his gain is Heaven). It takes knowing the Lord to live as forgiven & forgiving people. I'm thankful for your testimony of grace & love, and for Donna's & all the Pals.

Love you all!