What is the Hardest Thing You’ll Ever Give Away?
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Money? Time? Advice and Opinions? Pride? Control? Beliefs?
Comforts of Life? The Past? Our Fear?
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Consider that it is possible that forgiveness is the hardest thing to give away. It’s hard for all of us to give our forgiveness. We’re hurt or offended by people through life in all kinds of ways- taken advantage of; offended; deceived; ignored- we all know people we need to forgive.
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In the video presentation, we see a man washing away the layers of dirt from a car that was once clean & shiny. Like the car, we acquire layers of dirt in the eyes of the Lord, which are the many sins that we commit each day. But rather than holding us guilty forever, the Lord offers us His merciful forgiveness. He simply says “Come to me, and again I will make you clean. Why? Because I love you.” And His forgiveness washes away our layers of sin, just as the man who washes away the layers of dirt from the car. Just as the man rubs onto the car a brand new shine, the Lord’s mercy not only cleans us, but allows us to shine with the light of his love!
In Matthew 6:14-15, we read: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (ESV) We can’t expect to go to God everyday asking for forgiveness, even as we’re withholding forgiveness from someone else. If we say, “I forgive you, but I’m never going to let it go- I’m never going to make myself available to you again”, that is not forgiveness. Praise the Lord that time and time again, when I’ve gone to the Lord for forgiveness, He has not said: “I’m tired of you making the same mistakes over and over; I’m tired of forgiving you of that.” I’m so thankful that my Christ says “come to me and I will make you whole.”
1. We must acknowledge the need to give forgiveness to others.
2. We must acknowledge the need to forgive ourselves.
3. We must forgive as God forgives.
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We need to let go of the past, and acknowledge the Lord’s forgiveness. How many blessings have we passed up by holding onto grudges, holding on to our past sins, or refusing to ask forgiveness from someone else? We must forgive as God forgives. If we claim to be a Christian, we must give forgiveness in order to live as the Lord tells us we must. But it takes Christ in our lives to be able to do that. “Forgiveness is like a boulder. If you start knocking on the boulder with small hammer and a small chisel, it becomes smaller and smaller as it is chipped away. You can knock on it until it becomes dust, and dust is nothing. That is like true forgiveness. Forgiveness can chip away a hardened heart. Or like the layers of an onion, Christ can peel away the ugly black layers of my heart to make me clean.
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Colossians 3:12-13 says, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.“
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Our awesome God never complains about us. He is always forgiving, always gracious, always merciful. He loves us. He says “come and I will restore you. I will make you clean. He says “come, and I will forgive you.”
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We must acknowledge forgiveness of others.
We must forgive ourselves.
We must ask forgiveness from others.