Perhaps one of the most difficult things about being a Christian practically, is having to forgive others.

“Grrr” you say (if anyone actually says that) “Why do I have to forgive him/her- I can’t believe what they did/said to me”

 

But forgiveness is one of the fundamental foundations of living a Christian life. The Lord Jesus himself mentioned forgiveness on a number of occasions and how it should characterise those who follow him. 

 

Forgiveness is difficult, especially if you are really hurt by somebody. But I suppose its not really supposed to be easy.

 

After all, if it was easy to ‘forgive and forget’ it would diminish the power of forgiveness. People will notice if you forgive them. The world knows nothing of forgiveness, instead its all about getting even. So by forgiving somebody you are actually showing a great witness of Christ.

 

If revenge is a dish best served cold, then forgiveness is a five star meal, presented free, to a starving man.

 

I was watching a clip on YouTube the other day, and it was a true story of a man in a courtroom whose daughter was killed by some serial killer in America. The court had allowed the family members of the four people who had been murdered to come into court to meet the killer. Obviously, the families took this opportunity to hurl abuse at their family member’s murder. Calling him every name under the sun. But when this last guy got up, he said basically “I’m not going to shout at you, that wouldn’t do anything. I’m a Christian and in God’s word it says I must forgive all those who hurt me” Then with a serious amount of effort, looking directly into his daughters killer’s eyes, and he said “You are forgiven sir.” Obviously, the court was stunned, not to mention the murderer himself. But what a practical expression of real forgiveness. It’s very easy to harbor a grudge, that’s the easy way out. But it will eat you up from the inside. If you do ‘look back in anger’ continually, all it will do is make you into an angry person, but more importantly it will ruin your relationship with God. We have been told to forgive people, however hard that may be. But God has left us a perfect model of forgiveness- the Lord Jesus. That cry on the cross- “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” It perhaps easy to skip over those words, we know them well. But just think about them for a moment, think about who the Lord was and what was being done to him at the moment. Yet he still was able to cry out to God to forgive them. Stephen too was another who said similar things- following in the footsteps of his Master. So yes, forgiveness is hard, it’s tough, it may be a difficult thing to come to, but remember this:

 

You’ve done more against God than anyone could ever possibly do to you, and he forgave you. We should try and show that forgiveness to others.