If I had a million dollars for every time someone said to me, “Pastor, I will never forgive them for what they did to me,” I would be a triillionaire.
A man told Rev. John
Wesley, the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church, *he could never
forgive this particular person for the hurt and pain they had caused him. John
Wesley had a surprising response. He said, “Well, I hope you never sin
again.” The man said what do you mean? Wesley answered, “Your bitterness, anger
and lack of forgiveness will burn the bridge upon which your forgiveness will
come in the future.” In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive
us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”…. “Your bitterness, anger
and lack of forgiveness will burn the bridge upon which your forgiveness will
come in the future.”
When someone hurts us,
resolution and reconciliation come with a painful price tag. It is not easy to
develop the holiness of mind we need to build bridges instead of fences,
especially in the midst of race wars and cultural confusion. We may grudgingly
offer our olive branch, as a symbolic offering of peace. We may say we forgive
because we fear the wrath of God, but our heart may not be wholly healed. Our
heart may simply be limping along for the ride.
Let’s get used to the
fact that no one can love us like Jesus! So why should we feel we have lost it
all when human love fails? No one understands us like the living God. The one
who created us and sustains us knows us better than we know ourselves. Our
every breath depends on the one who loves us with an everlasting love.
So, when others won’t
give us what is due us and what they owe us, let us remember to look to the
hills from where our help comes. Our help comes from the one who made the
heavens and the earth.
We can trust
that GOD WILL PROVIDE. And if God doesn’t give it, we don’t need it, at least
we don’t need it yet. As the psalmist said, “Weeping may endure for the night,
but joy comes in the morning.” Or as Job said, “God may not come when you want
God, but God is always right on time.” God is our ultimate source of love and
everything else. That is a bitter pill to swallow when we want what we want and
we want it NOW.
All day and every day
we may be offended and frustrated for one reason or another. All day and every
day we have reasons to forgive ourselves, one another, maybe even God. At times
I feel offended when God allows me to struggle – though I always get something
good from every struggle. I always learn a critical spiritual lesson. I always
gain more than I lose. I always become stronger in spite of the strenuous
spiritual exercise! But, I still feel
offended.
Praise and thanksgiving
to God and one another keeps us from growing bitter roots in our heart and
makes forgiving less painful. Praise and thanksgiving to God and one another
makes it harder to hate. Praise and thanksgiving gives hate a hard push out of
our lives!
Forgiveness is a daily
part of our spiritual journey. You may have accumulated some stress and strain
and a need to forgive this week or this morning. Jesus tells us like he tells
Peter, forgive seven times, yes. But don’t stop there. Forgive 70 times.
By the time we set out
to forgive someone 70 times, as verse 22 says, we lose count and we begin get
God’s point. That point is that forgiveness NEVER ends. The time for
forgiveness never ends because the time for love NEVER ends, so says I
Corinthians.
We know that vengeance
doesn’t pay even though we are tempted to do it anyway. There is a Three Stooges sketch
where Mo kept hitting Curly on the chest. So Curly says, “I’m going to get even
with that guy.” So he takes a stick of dynamite and straps it to his chest and
says, “Next time he slaps me it’s going to blow his hand off.”
I will leave you with a story of a disciple who might be in this circle
today. This disciple caught a tiny bird and asked someone
wiser "What am I hiding in my hand?" The answer was "You have a
bird." "That's correct," said the disciple, "Now, tell me,
is it dead or alive?" The disciple thought to himself, "If she
answers that the bird is dead, I will open my hand and let it fly away... but
if she answers the bird is alive, I will crush the bird and open my hand to
show her that the bird is dead. Now, tell me, is the bird dead or alive?"
The wise one looked into the disciple's eyes, and said... "The answer, my
friend, is in your hands."
So, we are all disciples. We all make a difference
in matters of life and death. Each day it is in our hands to decide whether to
building bridges that connect, us fences that divide us, or dynamite that
destroys us. Today is the day that effects our tomorrow.
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*https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2018/08/01/soul-searching/forgiveness-is-it-optional/1435.html
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