Forgiveness - A Powerful Force  by Marilyn Hickey

   Forgiveness is not something we do once, but is a total way of
living. We have the power to totally and completely forgive all others,
because Jesus gave us that power. We experience His power of
Forgiveness the moment that we accept Jesus Christ as our savior and
Lord. This forgiveness that we receive from Jesus is a total
forgiveness of all of our sins and a washing of all our
unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

   In this forgiveness there are two points to consider: 1. He forgives
us freely when we truly repent. 2. He forgets our sins. He never
remembers them again.

   Here we see the power of forgetting and forgiving. Sometimes you and
I have both said that "I will forgive, but I will never forget." But
the forgiving and forgetting of the sins of others are part and parcel
of the same package, they cannot be separated. How can we both Forgive
and Forget? There is a very simple 1 word answer. It is by Faith! Faith
is NOT an emotion. It is not a set of circumstances which we can see.
It is acting uncompromisingly on God's Word. The apostles learned this
powerful truth in their walk with Jesus. They knew the difficulty they
had in forgiving those who had seriously offended them. Jesus told them
specifically how they were to act toward offending brothers. Luke
17:3-5: "Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee,
rebuke him; and if he repent, Forgive Him. And if he trespass against
thee 7 times in a day, and 7 times in a day turn again to thee saying,
I Repent; thou shalt forgive him."

   And the apostles said unto the Lord, "Increase our Faith." Please
notice the answer of the Apostles, "Increase our Faith." They knew that
they could not act on their emotions or the surrounding circumstances
which they could see. They must act on His spoken words. They needed
increased faith for increased forgiving. Hearing and acting on God's
word will increase your faith, and increased faith will give you
increased power to forgive.

   When you forgive by faith, you can also claim divine power to forget
by faith. It is divine to forgive, but it is also divine to forget.
Forgiveness is a powerful force. We can loose others with our
forgiveness, or we can bind them with our unforgiveness. We can loose
ourselves from torment by forgiving, or place ourselves in torment by
not forgiving.

   In Matthew 18:23-25, Jesus told a story about a man who owed a king
10,000 talents in Gold. (Today that is worth at least $290,850,000). To
even begin to pay the debt, that man would have to sell his wife and
children into slavery. But the King had compassion and loosed him by
forgiving the debt. How free the servant must have felt and how
overwhelmed he must have been with the compassion and goodness of the
King! But then the roles in the story were reversed. The forgiven
servant also has a debtor who owed him the equivalent of $17. What a
contrast on the amounts of money owed. Also, in contrast to the
benevolent King, this servant becomes irate with his debtor and throws
him into debtors prison. The king hears of his servants behavior and is
greatly disappointed. He turns the ungrateful servant over to the
tormenters until his debt is paid. The end of this story is very sad.
One man is bound in prison because of another's unforgiveness and the
unforgiving servant is being tormented.

   We are living in a very dangerous condition if we don't forgive, for
we will live in torment. If we don't forgive others, then Jesus will
not forgive us. If we plan not to forgive those who have wronged us, we
better make plans to never sin again, for there will be no forgiveness
for us from our Heavenly Father. But, when we do forgive, we loose our
forgiven offender. We have freed him by our faith, for whatsoever we
loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Heaven will begin to work on him
and our prayer power will increase. Jesus said in Matthew 18:18
"Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be
bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed
in Heaven."

   We can either eradicate people with our unforgiveness, or we can
edify them with forgiveness. But that is a decision we must make.
Joseph made a decision to forgive. If he had not forgiven his brothers,
he could have wiped out the whole Jewish nation by refusing them food.
Instead he forgave them and edified them by giving them food.

   The Apostle Paul decided to forgive, also. He said that he would be
accursed that his brethren might be saved. The Jews had him beaten many
times and treated him cruelly; but instead of wanting to eradicate
them, he chose to edify them.

   Jesus could have eradicated us because of our sins but, instead, His
one desire was to edify us. Therefore, He forgave us. Paul said in
Philippians 3:10 "That I may know Him, and the power of His
resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made
conformable unto His death."

   If we are to know Jesus and His sufferings, we will feel what He
felt for those who offended Him. He died on the cross for our sins
because He Loves us and Forgave us. Paul felt the same feelings of
Jesus for he wanted to die for his persecutors.

   These are truths to live by. If we take the feelings of Jesus for
our offenders, it will not be the end of our forgiving, only the
beginning; for forgiveness is a twin to faith and is the DIVINE way of
living.

   Marilyn Hickey