Welcome to Day 13 of The Challenge!
~
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another,
if any man have a quarrel against any:
even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
~
Have you ever been hurt by someone? Something that felt like a knife was stabbed right through your heart and instantly you had feelings against this person you never thought possible? I remember a time . . . in the not too distant past . . . that one of my best friends said some things that hurt me very deeply. I allowed her words to smolder in my heart for several weeks and took the first couple steps of ruining our relationship. All because I was too proud to budge and refused to accept the grace to forgive.
Forbearance is an act of love; forgiveness means to give graciously, unconditionally, without any strings. God had to take me through a rough lesson that time. He showed me that I was walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit, and it wasn’t until I was willing to let go and humble myself before God and my friend, that I found true freedom. I had to give full control back over to Him, and accept His grace to forgive. I’m least likely to forgive and hold a grudge when I am walking in the flesh, and not yielding my rights to His Lordship and His Spirit.
By the grace of God our friendship as been restored to normal and we both learned a lesson. Each walked away a step wiser from the things God had shown us. Praise the Lord for His “classrooms” though and His never-ending love and forgiveness towards us! He is so patient with His children! As Spurgeon says. . . “Oh, to forgive as we have been forgiven by God. Just as readily, just as freely, just as heartily, just as completely!”
~ Sharon Kelly
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January 13th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Great encouragement Sharon! I love the quote from Spurgeon too!
January 14th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
That is a wonderful testimony, Sharon. Thank you for sharing! I think it’s interesting that the word “forbearing” literally means to “put up with.” It can be a challenge to “put up with” certain people sometimes, but when I think about all that God “puts up with” in my, my problems pale in comparison.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Those look like New Zealand sheep!
In our Wisdom Booklet we’ve been studying forgiveness. “The offended needs to initiate restoration”. Is a summary of the major concept. Now I wonder how many of the readers can tell me off the top of their head what WB number that is!
Anyway, we have this quote on the wall. “The wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.” – Samuel Johnson. It is a quote that was garnered either from IBLP or Character First!
The one step that I find most important in forgiveness is the step after forgiveness.
So when I cause someone to need to forgive me (at home with my wife or a daughter or a son for example) I need to help them to forgive me by becoming humble, etc, as in the Basic Seminar (Follow Up Course etc) but they may lack a real sense of joy about our relationship if they do not ask God to bless me as well.
One cannot force one to bless you. But you can ask God to bless them with a desire to bless you, and then suggest it to them. That is what I do AT HOME. It may not work as well where there is a less intimate relationship.
Without forgiveness, there is no remission of sins.
“Jas 5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
http://www.E-Sword.net KJV.
January 16th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Thanks for sharing this, Mr. Smith! I like that quote from Samuel Johnson.
As a guess, are you all studying Matthew 6:14-15?