05/11/2024
First, God, please forgive me as I write. Lord, allow your words to be screamed to the reader so that any misleading lettering I wrote in the flesh is removed. Thank you, God, for being my Lord and Savior. Amen.
God Sent; Forgiving Big:
Insight to forgiveness as an action in character of a person verse forgiving.
I watched a movie called Finding Faith. In this Christian film (I love Pureflix), the main character's Father tells her a story about how her mother forgave him. In the midst of her trying to control her life, losing faith but believing in God, anger, the loss of a child, and about to get a divorce, she connects with her hometown pastor.
Walking through a few trials alongside this counsel, she was able to recover her relationship with God, give control to God's terms, and reconcile her marriage. The marriage was saved by her recently dead mother's forgiveness of her Father for cheating.
She even found God's Gifted insight into how strong her mother was to forgive. It wasn't a weakness, and it had nothing to do with what she was forgiving, but the fact that her mother forgave so BIG was a beautiful character to have. She admired it.
Ephesians 4:31-32 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you
Pause: Forgiveness is a form of character in a person, not a weakness like our culture portrays. If it is in God's Character to forgive the darkest of sins, why can't I? Why can't it be of healing and release?
Luke 6:37 - "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Your past has been embedded in God's will. Even in those moments of failure, hurt, and pain, God has waivered you in ways that no one but you could comprehend.
Matthew 6:14-15: For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
This week, while in a therapy session, many questions arose about my feelings about myself. The feeling I had of being so sick to return to abusive situations. The driven false heartache to close my eyes to harm. All in response to a normalcy that came from my childhood.
My return to this abuse was not a sick obsession or weakness. It was a built strength that God had placed on my ached heart. What I forgave had nothing to do with the person, nor the abuse, but my character. God then does what he does best: save me.
Psalm 82:4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. This was what God does in our lives.
This movie shaped my thoughts about myself differently than weakness, sickness, and self-pity. It illustrated the idea of forgiveness building a form of character in me.
Forgiveness is not a weakness, and it has nothing to do with forgiving the wrong person. The Lord uses everything for his good, even embedding his way of life within your old-natured life. Being reborn believers was manifested from seed; God does things like that cause he loves us.
Matthew 18:21-22: Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
It's a God thing. I almost went down a trauma rabbit hole in this writing, but God revealed scripture that softened my mind and let me refocus my writing: Praise you, God, in your love for me and understanding of what I need. I thought I'd share the refocus God placed on my heart in his love—Proverbs 12:25 . Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
