Forgiveness–it’s a gift!

We’ve all sinned.

Thankfully, our Lord does not hold our sins against us forever! When we seek His forgiveness, and turn away from sin, by grace we are forgiven.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:10-12

But, what if our sin is against another person?

We provoke an argument with our significant other…

We repeat some gossip…

We have a rough day at work. We hold in our frustration until we get home, but yell at our children for something trivial…

Sometimes we just mess up.

We sin…

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. Psalm 130:1-4

What does forgiveness really mean?

J.M. Houston, in the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, defines forgiveness as “ceasing to feel resentment for wrongs and offenses; pardon, involving restoration of broken relationships.” Forgiveness is a human act toward others, but this action is based on God’s forgiveness of our sins through the death of Christ. “Forgiveness is a uniquely Christian doctrine” (Houston, 1988).

I live on a farm and I’m often amazed at the lessons I learn from my daily tasks. This past week I was cleaning manure from the horse’s shed (Poop scooping is a lesson in itself, but not the focus of this message!)

Our dog Heidi is friendly and exuberant. She runs (seldom walks) with me on most of my work. As I cleaned the poop out of the shed, she zoomed up behind me. I didn’t see or hear her. She passed me just as I swung the scooper to my left to unload a pile of poop.

I hit her!

Thankfully, my scooper has plastic tines, not metal. She would have been seriously injured had I been using a pitch fork. But, the plastic scooper didn’t cause a wound. I was so relieved!

But, Heidi’s feelings were badly hurt. She slunk about twenty feet away, sat down and stared at me with accusing eyes.

She didn’t speak, but I knew what she was thinking. “Why did you hurt me? I was just coming to be with you!”

I felt guilty. It was an accident, not my fault, but I still felt bad. I needed to ask her forgiveness.

Are you saying–“You need to ask a dog’s forgiveness?”

Yes. I hurt her. I saw her fear and sadness. I needed to let her know that I was sorry. I called Heidi to come to me and checked to make sure she wasn’t physically hurt. I petted her and hugged her. Her eyes sparkled with happiness. She wagged her tailed, jumped with joy and ran ahead to our next task.

I was forgiven.

There are two parts to forgiveness–the seeking–and the accepting. When we have caused pain to someone, we must ask for forgiveness. When someone asks us for forgiveness, we must grant it. The burden of unforgiveness is a heavy one. Even if we feel someone has done the unforgivable, we are still called to forgive.

Are you carrying the burden of guilt? Is there someone from whom you need to beg forgiveness?

Are you carrying the heavy load of unforgiveness? Holding a grudge you cannot let go of? I pray you will take that burden to the altar of Jesus and leave it there. Ask for Him to give you the strength to lovingly forgive.

Forgiveness is a gift.

Because of God’s great love for us, He sent Jesus to take the burden of our sins upon himself. We are forgiven because of His gift of grace.

When we ask forgiveness for our actions, we offer the gift of our love. We put aside our pride and offer our humble apology to the person we have wronged.

When we forgive someone, we not only provide them with a gift of our grace, we also receive a gift–the release of the burden of unforgiveness.

Forgiveness is a gift.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

 

 

 

 

Houston, J. M. (1988). Forgiveness. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 810). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.