Forgive All
Mark 11:25-26 (NASB) And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in Heaven will also forgive you your offenses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in Heaven forgive your offenses.
We must forgive people. We don’t just forgive those we want to forgive or those who are worthy of forgiveness, but we forgive any and all. Why do we have to do that? I don’t want to do that, but if I want my faith to work, I must do that.
Mark 11:23-24 are famous scriptures Jesus spoke that tells us how to receive the promises of God and how to remove the mountains out of our lives, but Jesus didn’t stop there. He kept going with His thought of how to receive the things we need and how to have our words work. He said we had to forgive. While we are praying, you and I must forgive anyone that we are having trouble with. Galatians 5:6 says that our faith works by love. If you and I do not walk in forgiveness, then we are not walking in love and our faith will not work.
Forgiving people is for you. If you don’t forgive, many things will start happening to you. You will develop a root of bitterness, which will choke out the Word of God in your life and keep you from producing the God fruit that He has for you. You will begin to defile, which is defined as “to rape” other people. Your unforgiveness, which turns into bitterness, will begin to hurt others because of sowing seeds of discord among the brethren. This is serious stuff. This unforgiveness can even turn into hatred. In 1 John 2:8-11, it tells us this hate puts you into darkness. Your eyes become blinded and the revelation of God and His Word stops flowing. Unforgiveness is a cancer, and it must be dealt with in all our lives. You have to deal with it. Don’t live another day in unforgiveness with anyone.
What you can do is begin to pray for those who despitefully used you. This is not you saying what they did to you was right or ok. No, it is keeping you free from becoming the victim twice. They did something, so now you are doing something, and this is literally keeping God from being able to help you. Romans 12:17-21 and Proverbs 25:21-22 tell us to heap coals of fire upon the head of the one who harmed us. This is often misunderstood as a “God, get them!” scripture when, really, it is a “God, help them” scripture. It is the picture of the High Priest and the Mercy seat where the coal is placed, which causes a smoke and aroma to go up from the Mercy seat so that God can deal with that person favorably. You do your part and pray for them and then, let God do His part.
You forgive them and let God bless you.