“Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.” Margaret Stunt
If you are breathing, there is someone you have encountered in your life that has offended you. Forgiveness is one of most powerful weapons I believe Jesus gave us. Ephesians 4:32 tells us to be kind to each other, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven us. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.”
If you are breathing, there is someone you have encountered in your life that you have offended. We need people to forgive us just as much as we need to forgive them.
Unforgivness harbors ANGER, BITTERNESS, HATE, and RESENTMENT. These are very dangerous to our hearts as they produce unrighteousness. James 1:20 tells us that Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. It will fester in your heart. It will become this ugly monster and the more you replay the offense over and over in your mind, the bigger the monster grows. It continues to grow until it consumes you! It consumes your thoughts, your actions, your conversations, and it steals you happiness and joy! Unforgivness really is poison!
God promises that if we will just trust him, he will avenge his children. Romans 12:19 “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” I know this is easier to be said then done. I know we want instant gratification to our flesh. We want them to feel as horrible as we do in the instance the offense is made against us.
Unforgivness is a THIEF! IT steals from you!
So today I would like to share with you a little secret of mine! It’s my secret way I release unforgivness to offenses made against me. I am a tangible type of girl. I like to touch and feel things. When you think about anger you may think violence. I like to release my emotions in motion for the most part. ( Best stress release is running and working out!) That is just what “feels” good to me. So when I discovered I could make my offenses tangible and them tear them apart to shreds, it turned my intangible hurts into tangible things! Stay with me now, as I try to explain this.
It is not all about just tearing paper apart it is about seeking the Lord in prayer first!
It is about freeing myself from anger and putting into action my faith that Jesus will take care of me. With every tear, I am experessing my trust and obedience to him. He is a healer. He knows us better than we even know our ownself and he hurts when we are hurting. If you have a hard time believing this and you are a parent, then just think about how you feel when someone messes with your child? Does the word Anger strike a chord? We are God’s children, he cares about what people do to us. He promises to take care of them one way or the other in his time. He knowing all, knows the best way to handle them as well! When we act out in anger we end up just getting into trouble. We pay evil for evil and nothing good ever comes out of the situation.
HOW TO RELEASE UNFORGIVENESS (pursuing peace)
#1 Go to the Lord in Prayer. Be honest with him. Let him know you are very hurt but you don’t want to stay that way. Ask him to heal your brokenness. Ask him to have the ability to forgive like he forgives and love like he loves. If you are a child of God, you have this ability in you, through the Holy Spirit that is living inside of you.
#2 Write the offense (offenses) down on paper.
#3 Say out loud (The offender’s name) I forgive you for (what you wrote down on the paper).
#4 TEAR up the paper and let the anger, resentment, and hurt go……yup….drop it, and release its poison from your heart.
#5 Throw your pieces in the trash, and forget about it.
#6 If you really, really, really want to make the DEVIL mad for trying to trip you up on that unforgivness poison, then go out and bless that offender some how! (mind blown)
OVER COME EVIL WITH GOOD! Romans 12:21
When the devil tries to bring back up the offense, and it tries to sneak back into your heart, make sure that you remind yourself that you have already burned that bridge, and pray for strength to not fall back into temptation of unforgiveness.
To be honest there may be times where you are having to do this regularly with a particular individual in your life. Just know that your diligence to keep strife out of your life and peace in your heart will not go unrewarded. Pray for this person. Pray for peace in that relationship. Sometimes we just have to move on and not allow ourselves to continue to be in their line of fire of offenses. If it becomes habitual you may just have to tell yourself that the problem is deep-rooted in them, so stop taking it personal! When we give our hurts over to God and let him heal us and take care of the offender for us, we can have peace and it keeps us from getting ourselves in trouble, which breads self-guilt and self-condemnation.
Maybe today you just need to forgive yourself? You hold the power to what takes roots in your own heart. Guilt and condemnation only make us weak and bring us into more sin.
Remember 1 Peter 3:11 STOP THE CYCLE TODAY of STRIFE and PURSUE PEACE!
Love yourself enough to stop taking the toxic unforgiveness poison!
A great book to read on forgiveness is Joyce Meyer’s book Do Yourself a Favor …. Forgive! It’s on Ibooks and Amazon. My computer is not allowing me to copy and paste the link. I will try and plus this up later.
XOXO
Leigh Leigh
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