If given a chance, most of us would love to go back to our childhood days. No worries in life! We always had someone to look after every need. We could cry and get almost anything done for us. But one of the key things would be the absence of extra weight such as ‘Unforgiveness’ that we adults carry around.
On most nights, as I put my son Nathan to bed, I ask him few questions and specially the days when I have scolded him badly for his act of stubbornness. . ‘Did mummy scold you today? Did you obey everything I told you today?’ etc. The answer to these questions is a standard “no”. Lastly I tell him how much I love him and he hugs and kisses me saying he loves me too. My heart fills with overflowing joy when I hear these words from him. I always wonder how easy it is for my little one to forgive and forget such incidents while he remembers all the other things that happened throughout the day!
Jesus said unless you become like one of these little ones you cannot enter the kingdom of God. As we grow up, we lose such innocence in our life. Even trivial matters can bring in so much strife and anger towards others. Lack of forgiveness stands as a barrier between God and us. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son …” (John 3:16). It’s all for the sake of love that Jesus died on the cross. When we have received such great love from God we can’t choose not to love others. It’s not the nature of Christ.
“Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner!”- Max Lucado
Sometimes our resentment may be justified and someone may have done a very terrible thing to us. We may have every legal and intellectual right to hold a grudge and to hate that person. But as long as we hold grudge within us, we are being a prisoner of ourselves.
The best way to forgive someone is to start praying for that person. As we begin to pray, God will fill our heart with His love. Take a moment to reflect on your personal life if we have unforgiveness in our heart towards anyone. CHOOSE to forgive them and PRAY for them consciously. Let us love one another as Christ loved us (John 15:12) and let us forgive each other as Christ forgave us(Ephesians 4:32).