Why Should I Forgive?

“Why should I forgive?” you may be pondering and pouting simultaneously. There are several reasons why one should do so. They range from the Christian with Christ calling us to forgive our neighbour to the mere secular which I will mention later.

There are several indicators to look for to see whether you truly need to forgive someone. They include:

When you think of the person do you feel anger, bitterness, a tightness of your stomach, a squeeze on your heart or even hatred?Do you find it difficult to trust someone who is like that person in their looks, their sex e.g male or female, or profession or even nationality?Do you constantly think about that situation?Can you pray for the person?

If most of these relate to you then you will need to forgive. Yes it is hard. Bloody hard! But remember Christ was bloody for you! He bled almost every drop of his blood for you. He loves you so much.

When we pray the Our Father prayer we pray “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” It does not say “as we forgive those who ask us for forgiveness”. There is a reason for this. One it takes a greater person to forgive than it does to hold onto hatred and bitterness. What did Christ say on the cross? He said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do?” Forgive them! Wow! Christ asked God to forgive even those who caused Him so much unbearable pain! Pain we can only imagine!

Let me share with you an analogy which came to me when tidying my room, lol! I feel God is calling me to leave my country and so I decided to get rid of old things including clothes. I realised that we buy new clothes but still hang onto the old, even those that we have not worn for years. Now relate that to God giving us blessings. He blesses us with new things and yet we still want to hold onto the past. Can we receive the new blessings if we are still clutching desperately to the past? Take your hand and clench it now! If you have longish fingernails it will hurt! That’s another analogy for holding onto the past!

When one holds onto unforgiveness the person who hurt you in the first place still has power over you! Yes, because this unforgiveness translates into other areas of our life. We look with suspicion on others (I’m not saying we should be a doormat though) and even our relationships be shaky as a result. Yes it is hard to forgive! That is why I think the truest way we can forgive is only through the Cross of Christ. We must lay that unforgiveness and hurt at the foot of the Cross. If you are Catholic then you can do this through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The priest is acting in the person of Christ – not acting in the sense of make believe but in a spiritual way he is Christ. Therefore the priest does not absolve you from your sins but Christ does! WOW!

True freedom comes from forgiving through Christ. I know this. I was beaten up at school physically and psychologically (I even wrote a book about it and overcoming the fear of rejection see www.kiwig.com and www.godfact.com) If you do not forgive then you give the person who has hurt you the power to keep hurting you though you may not see it tangibly. When one reflects that every time we commit a mortal sin (serious sin with full knowledge and fully consent on our part) then we are treating God the same or similar to that situation in which we were hurt. So let us forgive. Let us be humble and forgive and focus on the new blessings God has for us!

God bless

Brendan Roberts
www.godfact.com