A Heart of Forgiveness
I’ve been thinking a lot about forgiveness. I can see how easy it is to breed bitterness and discontent if I don’t take care to apply my heart to forgive. I don’t have anything particularly horrible that has been done to me and yet forgiveness still does not come easily. What I mean is that the things I often get “hung up” on are not even that big of a deal in the scope of things. The other day I had a situation when someone was rude to me. I was getting into my car after getting some things at the store, when I noticed a note on my windshield. The driver of the car next to me was angry that I had parked too close to their car, though I was inside my lines. The note stated in rather offensive language that I had been inconsiderate to a woman who was nine months pregnant and called me a few choice names at the end. I could have been pretty bitter about this.
In this situation people might understand if I felt upset, but what would a godly response be ? This seems like a very small trifle to overcome, but my response reflects how I would handle bigger obstacles and I’m not sure I would do too well. We can’t look at things from a human perspective because as believers God requires that we be like Christ in our response. So even though my feelings might be understandable they do not justify holding a grudge, getting back or having an angry response. In fact any response other than forgiveness and grace would not be acceptable.
We are all familiar with Matthew 18:21-22 where Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother if he sins against him. Tradition said that seven times was enough and then the wronged was no longer obligated to forgive the offender. But Jesus gives Peter a staggering response–
In this same conversation with Peter, Jesus tells the parable of the servant who was in a great amount of debt to his master but unable to settle his account. The master commanded that he and his family be sold to make the payment, but the servant pleaded with him for patience and the master had such compassion on him that he forgave the debt.
Then the servant went out and found one of his friends who owed him a very small amount in comparison to his own debt. The friend could not pay his debt so the servant had him thrown into jail. The master heard of the servant’s dealing and was angry with him because though his great debt had been forgiven, he could not have compassion on the friend who owed a small amount. Then it says that the master gave the servant over to torturers until he paid all he owed. The jarring part to this story is in verse 35–
from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Sometimes we deceive ourselves into thinking that we deserve something. We might even think that God isn’t giving us what we deserve and that He’s not being fair to us in the circumstances we are experiencing. I know I have felt that way before. But the truth is that death is all we are due for our sin (Romans 6:23).
Most passages that address forgiveness have this same tone of seriousness. One is Matthew 6:15
your Father will not forgive your sins.”
June 26th, 2006
Sis-
I really appreciated what you said about forgiveness being a state of heart. That reminded me of some of the things like preaching and worship leading that we talked about this last weekend. It was great to see you guys! I’m looking forward to more blakeyblogging now that your internet is up and running.
June 26th, 2006
Different people, different responses I guess. As I read through your situation, my initial impulse was not to FORGIVE (as you exhort) but rather to ASK forgiveness of the one I offended — albeit unwittingly.
Nevermind their bad language. We should strive to always repay evil with good. It would be good and probably soothing to the other driver if you left a heartfelt apology for the trouble you caused — whether by the “letter of the law” you were in the wrong or not.
June 27th, 2006
Ben- it was great to see you too! I like how you said the thoughts on forgiveness made you think of worship and preaching. So many things in the Christian life aren’t just to be actions we do, but to characterize who we are in our hearts.
Anonymous-You make a good point that we should always return evil with good. If the car had still been there I certainly would have responsponded to their note with an apology. Thanks for the comment.