In one of his books, Dale Carnegie talks about his visit to Yellowstone National Park. One night he saw a grizzly bear in a campsite eating some food that had been left behind by campers. For several minutes the bear feasted alone. After a few minutes a skunk walked up to the campsite, took his place next to the bear, and began to eat. The bear did nothing. Carnegie said he knew why. “The grizzly knew the high cost of getting even.”
Getting even is expensive. It always costs more than we think it will. People who refuse to forgive, hurt themselves. Often, they can’t sleep. Ulcers line their stomachs. Their blood pressure rises. They become negative and critical. They are overcome by the pain, the hurt, and the offense.
I’ve seen personally what happens. Those who hold onto the pain are often filled with anger and resentment. They think they are punishing the other person by withholding forgiveness, but what’s actually happening is they are hurting themselves.
Forgiveness not only releases us physically and emotionally, it also releases us spiritually. One of the greatest barriers to effective prayer and a healthy spiritual life is an unforgiving heart.
Right in the middle of Jesus’ most famous sermon, The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus says something that makes us stop in our tracks: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
Jesus is telling us that there is a vital link between the way you treat other people and the way God in heaven is going to treat you. Let’s face it. We don’t like that. We’d much prefer if we could just have our relationship with God insulated so we could treat other people any way we like. Jesus says, You can’t have it that way." Unless you forgive you will not be forgiven. This is a hard word, isn’t it? But it is a hard word of grace.
Because we have experienced the forgiveness of God, we now have the power to forgive others.
In fact, one time Peter asks Jesus about the responsibility of believers to offer forgiveness to others. He asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you not seven times but seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22).
This is such an important topic for us to deal with because there is not a person listening today who hasn’t been hurt deeply. You need to know this truth: God wants to set you free. He wants you to overcome the hurt, the pain, the offense, the memories, and the burden of it all.
Jesus’ command to forgive is one of the most difficult commands for us to obey. A lot of times we simply don’t want to forgive. It feels to us that if we forgive, we are letting them get away with the injustice. “They don’t deserve forgiveness,” we say.
There is a high cost to resentment. Unforgivness locks us into a prison. Jesus has come to set us free. God makes a big deal about forgiveness because it releases us from the offense.
Unforgiveness is a burden. I think we all know what it feels like. But forgiveness is freedom. Where there was once sorrow, heaviness, and bitterness, is now comfort and peace. When we forgive we are release from the bondage. To me, forgiveness is like God opening the prison door and allowing us to walk away and leave it all behind.
Today’s Challenge: While your pain may be great, I hope you’ll recognize that through forgiveness God wants to bring healing and peace into your life. Determine not to live in the prison of resentment and unforgivness. Forgive as God has forgiven you.
