Without forgiveness and its power to restore us and our relationships, we are destined to become hard of heart. And hardness of heart is anathema to God. The Good News is that Jesus Christ brought God’s forgiveness with Him. Yet there is an important catch to receiving God’s forgiveness: in response to God’s forgiveness, we must become forgivers ourselves. Remaining unforgiving means refusing God’s priceless gift of forgiveness. When you let in God’s blanket forgiveness, you cannot help but forgive yourself and others, because of the freedom of heart and soul forgiveness brings. You do not want to hold onto unforgiveness any longer.
At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus cautions us:
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors…. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:12, 14-15).
Elsewhere, Jesus continues to connect being forgiven by God and with the necessity of forgiving others:
“Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
Being forgiving is a central characteristic of being Christian. Paul continues the instruction of our Lord:
“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).
“Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Colossians 3:13).
Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit onto His disciples after His resurrection, along with the authority to forgive sins. Imagine how the breath of Christ must have felt on the disciples’ faces. In this breath prayer exercise, breathe in Christ’s forgiving Spirit, and accept God’s forgiveness in Christ. Then as you breathe out, let go of all unforgiveness, turning everything and everyone over to God for God’s justice and mercy. Let God take care of what is beyond you.
Breathe in with the word, “forgiven” (by God). And breathe out with the word, “forgiving” (by yourself). The truth is, you have to let in God’s forgiveness before you can truly become forgiving. And that includes not only forgiving those who have wounded you, but also forgiving yourself as well. Many of us have greater difficulty forgiving ourselves than we do forgiving others. Forgive yourself as God in Christ has already forgiven you.
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