It frees you up to experience an unexplainable grace and peace from the very God of all comfort. Hurt for healing; bitterness for blessing.
The Source of Love Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. Love is the Pattern of Forgiveness In keeping with your magnificent, unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.
Stubborn Love They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt.
But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them. How can we learn from that to deal with people who have been obstinate against us? Ripe Forgiveness O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. Flourishing Love Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. First ask God to forgive you for any ugliness in your own heart, and then you will be ready to consider showing love to others by offering forgiveness.
Ask God to show you how He loves them. Reach out to them just as God would. If this is hard for you, ask God to make you willing to be willing to forgive. Forgiveness starts when you seek to forgive.
As long as you feel like they have no right to your forgiveness, you will be tormented by bitterness. Kathy Carlton Willis writes with a balance of funny and faith—whimsy and wisdom.
She shines the light on issues that hold believers back. Learn more at kathycarltonwillis.
We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. Skip to main content. The Christian Broadcasting Network CBN is a global ministry committed to preparing the nations of the world for the coming of Jesus Christ through mass media. Forgiveness Kathy Carlton Willis.
More from Kathy Carlton Willis. It seemed like my life was ended. I felt abandoned by God and the only way out of the downward spiral was to understand, and forgive. And for some reason came this flash-back from my childhood, asking for an opportunity to forgive unconditionally. Now, many years later, I was in a situation where that desire could be expressed. I only had to choose to do it.
In that moment I knew that Albert and F.
The gratitude to both my son and F. I understood the divine love that had made a human being act in a criminal way.
I could even see further back, to the author of the story that sparked my desire to become more than I was. I had discovered the gift hidden in the tragedy and could only be grateful for the opportunity - which I had actually asked for - to choose a higher response than the grief, anger and incomprehension I felt. I could sincerely thank F. There was no more need for forgiveness, no harm was done, there was no victim, we had all agreed to a soul contract that has played out for the highest evolution of everyone concerned. So forgiveness is more than the recognition of a gift.
We operate on two levels, the human and the spiritual. A spiritual being can only act in this world through a human being. When we look from the spiritual level, where all beings are pure goodness and only striving to help the incarnated part of other spiritual beings to awaken to their true nature, we realize that every human behavior is only there to help us remember that.
And I am deeply grateful for that realization. On the human level, we feel justified in being angry or resentful when we have been hurt in some way; but that feeling is poisoning our own life.