We’re doing a really cool thing at the church I serve called The Forgiving Challenge. It’s cool because it’s super simple. It’s cool because it’s outlined well and yet remains flexible to be applied to our context. It’s cool because it’s resulting in some fun stories and new relationships across the members of the church.
The idea is simple. Forgiven people forgive people. The more you realize your own need for forgiveness, the more likely you’ll be to offer that to someone else. If you’re holding a grudge or some bitterness in your heart towards someone, then you’re starving yourself of realizing the full benefit of forgiveness.
This week we spent time with the word forgive. We talked about its definition according to culture and how that is only half the picture. We discussed what forgiveness costs us and what it cost Jesus on our behalf.
Think of it this way, for you to forgive someone of a hurt they did to you, you’ll need to let a part of you die. The part of you that’s all twisted with anger and hurt needs to be let go. In our time in church we looked at the things that remind us of our sin aren’t there to make us relive our sin but to relieve us of its weight.
Take time considering those people in your life against whom you might be holding a grudge or with whom you might be holding bitterness in your heart. Sacrifice a piece of yourself by going out of your way to forgive, not necessarily because they are worth forgiving but because you didn’t earn your forgiveness. So if you’ve been forgiven and didn’t earn it, you should probably give that same forgiveness to those around you (even if they didn’t earn it in your eyes).