What Does It Take to Love? – Part 7: Forgive & Forget
David W Palmer
(Micah 7:19 NLT) Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!
(Matthew 18:21, 35 NKJV) Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” ... {35} “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
God loves people; he loves his creation; he loves you and me, and he wants us crowned with his glory as his sons and daughters:
(Psalm 8:4–5 NKJV) “… You have crowned him with glory and honor.”
Restoration and Reconciliation with God
Obviously, we have all sinned and fallen far short of the glory of his favor, acceptance, fellowship, and manifest presence. So he invested the mortal life of his precious Son, Jesus, so he could legally and legitimately forgive us. He forgives us completely because he loves us infinitely. Now that he has loved us practically, demonstrated it openly, and forgiven us wholeheartedly, his door is open to us. All he requires of us is verbal repentance, request for forgiveness, and trust. Now the question becomes: How much do we love him? Will we respond positively to his invitation to come into intimate fellowship with him?
(1 John 4:19 NKJV) We love Him because He first loved us.
The more of our sin and iniquitous ways we confess, renounce, and for which we throw ourselves onto his mercy for his forgiveness, and the more we appreciate his sacrifice leading to our pardon; the more we open our hearts to him in love:
(Luke 7:47 NLT) “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”
We have all sinned enough to be worthy of hell, and therefore we all need to depend desperately and entirely on God’s merciful forgiveness. So in this regard, we are all equal before him at the foot of the cross. Those who fully acknowledge this and who throw themselves 100% on him for mercy, open their hearts fully to him and can thus love him totally. If we hold back anything in this process, we are reserving part of ourselves, which means we are unable to love him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength:
(Mark 12:30 NKJV) “‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”
Therefore, fulfilling this “first commandment” depends on confessing, forsaking, renouncing, making restitution where possible, and receiving God’s forgiveness for the entirety of our sin/sinful nature—remembering, and being eternally grateful for, how much it cost him to provide it for us. Having done this wholeheartedly, we can love him unreservedly—with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. This is practical love for God.
(God never sins against us, so we don’t have to forgive him.)
Reconciliation and Resolution when We Have Sinned
The next step is to translate this into love for people. If we sin against someone, we need to throw ourselves on his or her generous mercy and seek their forgiveness. This requires humility and complete honesty about what we have done against them or to hurt them. Verbal repentance is an integral part of this, but so is restitution. For example; if you stole something, give it back in the process of asking forgiveness. If you gossiped about someone or spoke against them, first cancel out those negative words in Jesus’s name. Then dedicate yourself to going back to the same people to whom you gossiped (if possible), correct what you said, and then speak positively about the person you slandered—far more than you ever spoke negatively about them.
If we humbly, honestly, and completely repent to the person we’ve wronged; if we have made, or are making, restitution, and if we truly seek their forgiveness—t
