What is forgiveness?
The dictionary says that forgiveness is "the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven".
The dictionary leaves out a VERY important part of this action, which is why Jesus came to fill in the blanks. Around Easter, people talk about how Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins. Some even go far enough to marvel about how He came to save personally them and the person suddenly feels unworthy of it looking back on the dirt of the week. I think that one part that people miss in this is how Jesus came to save everyone.
He came to give EVERYONE a second chance. EVERYONE.
While it's amazing that Jesus came to personally save you, we all need to think about this. Do we give people second chances? Third chances? Fourth chance? How many times did Jesus tell Peter to forgive? In Matthew 18 Jesus says to Peter in verse 22, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."
There are people out there that abuse forgiveness and just make the same mistake over and over again. Why should we forgive them? Well, don't we abuse God's forgiveness everyday? Don't we have to ask for God's forgiveness several times a day?
Forgiveness has a very key word in the middle of it: give. We didn't have to pay for someone to save and forgive us. Why do we make someone else pay for what we get free everyday? This doesn't mean be a softy or to be easy with these people. But it does mean that we don't hold on to what they've done in the past. Every time they want a clean slate give them one.
If we strive to be the image of Jesus then we have to learn how to not look back! Looking back just causes us to stumble over something that we would've seen if we were looking forward. We miss things when we look back. Like that change in someone's life! That relationship that you were supposed to be ready for! Or you could miss something dangerous. Like how that pregnant girl is abused everyday because people are looking back at that one night of weakness. Like that father is in prison because he was accused of a crime he didn't commit because of his past record. Looking back not only hurts other people, it's hurts us. Sometimes we don't know how far back our head is until it hits the ground.
Next time someone asks you for a clean slate remember what you were supposed to get, but what Jesus did so that you wouldn't have to pay it. Give forGIVEness!
One of the girls....
Taylyr
