Freedom lies in forgiving
FORGIVENESS is the act of relenting from keeping a grudge over an offence. It is the heartbeat of a life lived for God because His Son Jesus Christ solely came to earth to forgive the sin of man. When we wrong one another, it takes the heart of forgiveness from the offended to release the offender by freeing the latter from any fear of remaining unforgiven.
God does not only forgive but He also forgets what was done wrongly towards Him by the offender who comes to ask for forgiveness. He says in His word in Micah 7:18-19 that He will pardon iniquity because He retains not His anger for ever as
He delights in mercy. In His compassion He will throw all our sins in the depths of the sea. In Hebrews 8:12 He said, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Is it possible to have a forgiving heart in this life? We have the example of King David, who rose one morning in his palace in Jerusalem and announced that if there was anybody left in the house of the previous King,saul, he would bring him to live with him in the palace for the sake of his deceased close friend Jonathan, the late son of King Saul.
Yet at that time the houses of Saul and David were sworn enemies that were not seeing eye to eye at all. Long story short, late Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth was fetched from a poverty stricken life in a remote area to come and live in the King’s palace with David’s family for good. This was the more reason many sick individuals in the days of Jesus would call Jesus, shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” and Jesus would be prompted to stop for them and heal them. All because David was the epitome of a merciful heart that lived on earth before Jesus arrived. David himself had been forgiven a lot by God and as the Bible says, “To whom much has been forgiven, much will also be expected when it comes to expressing love or mercy towards others” (paraphrased). Let us not be like the individual Jesus referred to in His parable of two individuals who owed money to others. The first one was fully forgiven of, say, a £100, debt he owed his boss, but he could not forgive his own friend who just owed him, say, £10, and he mercilessly had the friend imprisoned. When his boss heard it, he got the unforgiving man severely punished. Let us learn something from this episode! ■■Bishop Pangani Mcnight Thipa is Senior Pastor and National Overseer of Calvary Family Church, Nottingham
God forgives and also forgets what was done towards Him by the offender who asks for forgiveness.