Choosing Forgiveness

Colossians 3:13 –

‘Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.’

If you're anything like me, I've found it takes a whole lot more intentionality to choose forgiveness than it does just to increase my tolerance.

Forgiveness can be difficult because of the foggy thinking about what it means. For many, it is often misinterpreted as simply going back to the way things were or returning to a broken relationship. While tolerance could be seen as faking it or putting on a facade, true forgiveness doesn't deny what has happened.

N.T. Wright says, “Forgiveness is a way of life, God’s way of life, God’s way to life".

As Jesus followers, we're called to deal with others in the same way God deals with us. The Apostle Paul reminds that we already live as free people: 'Forgive as the Lord forgave you' but it can be easy to forget that we are free when we're in the middle of a conflict or still carrying the wounds of a painful relationship.

Choosing forgiveness means being honest about what has happened and acknowledging it as sin done towards us. It requires an openness to allow God to restore life to the relationships that took life from us. When we withhold forgiveness, we become a prisoner to our resentment and bitterness: a prisoner to sin. Forgiveness opens the prison door and lets us walk into freedom.

If you know today there is someone you need to forgive, be bold and deliberate, take the next steps in this journey. It'll be costly, but entirely worth the energy required. Rarely is it a one-time act but know that this journey will take you from feeling stuck- and release you into true freedom.

Prayer – Lord, show us the areas and people in our lives where we're withholding forgiveness. Give us grace as we begin to journey towards true freedom and allow you to restore every area of our lives.