I Forgive You

I. forgive. you.

Three little words. Three uneventful, uneloquent, rather simple, and honestly too often said nonchallantly, words.

My three-year-old obediently says them when she has taken one of her sister’s toys. My seven-year-old proclaims this phrase, after unnecessarily exploding.

And yet, the power, the power of letting the toxic cancer of a bitter heart flow out of your mouth, healing drenching the heart, when others have offended you.

It can be like water, saturating the insides of you; inner cleansing that replenishes something once killing you.

It can be like taking a mind filled with cobwebs and lies and letting God spray it clean, wash it anew, crucifying the power of pain that once firmly gripped you…

It is telling resentment, “You are no longer welcome”.

Does forgiveness mean letting the same people keep hurting you? “No”! Does it mean bowing down to hate or shame, letting abuse or addiction continue to harm you? “Absolutely not!”

We must protect ourselves from pain-inflicting people, those selfish or self-centered, those who lie without regard and continually harm other people.

Boundaries are essential. 

But, can forgiveness heal us? Help us move on? Repair and restore us? No question.

Forgiveness can help us see more clearly, rise us out of deep pain, free us from toxic anger.

Dutsh, Corrie Ten Boom, was once held in a consentration camp. After her release, she was speaking to a group of people. It was then, one of her captures approached her, asking for her forgiveness.

What would she do?

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomor

row ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” (Corrie Ten Boom)

How many of us are needing strength in these unparrellel times? How many are seeing the world spin our of control with our own eyes? Aren’t we all looking for some kind of stable footing?

The soldiers who hung him looked up at Him with distain. They mocked and laughed at Him, placing a sign above His head saying, “King of the Jews”.

Blood dripped down his face from the crown of thorns they had placed on His head. His body ached from the spikes places through his hands.

Naked, vulnerable, completely exposed on that cross.

And yet, hate didn’t burn in His chest. Anger and bitterness didn’t fuse or fester, grow or take over every fabric of His being. Instead, Jesus whispered up to His Father…

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 24:34)

Unforgiveness is like acid, destroying the container that holds it.

Do you think Corrie Ten Boom, when she saw that soldier after preaching to a great room of people, FELT like forgiving her capture?

Do you and I, in our carnal state, every FEEL like forgiving? My guess is, “No”.

Yet, Corrie Ten Boom tells us, “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regradless of the temperature of the heart.” 

Forgiveness is a choice we make. It is a grace we give. It is letting the truth of His Spirit overpower our mind, will and emotions.

And like Jesus, we can lay barren before our captures and whisper, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”.

It is my thought, that we can never forgive, I mean really forgive, on our own. It’s like my three-year-old, mouthing words to get her out of time out.

True forgiveness is only capable because of the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Forgiveness is a supernatural gift.

“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25)

Yet, forgiveness isn’t about guilting us into obedience. It’s about God offering us a better way, a holy way, a clearer choice, to either live with the cobwebs of anger in our hearts…

Or walk out from them and be washed anew in the depths of our very hearts.

God is doing something new, and radical in this hour. He is offering those humble, a better way, wanting to give us new houses of redemption and power….

But the question is, will we first forgive?

We cannot carry new wine in old wineskins. (Mark 2:22)

We must shed the old, if we want to walk in the plans of a beautiful tomorrow, God has waiting for us.

And friends, He DOES have good in store. He DOES have promises poured out. But first, we must let go, to walk in His promises and goodness.

If our arms are full with our own pain and bitterness, how will we have space for the second chance and new life He longs to give us?

His mercies are new every morning. Today is a new day to wake up and live differently. Follow Him wholeheartedly, watching His righteousness spring forth in the land of the living.

But, you say you don’t feel alive? Like you aren’t even living? You feel like dry bones? Dead and deflated?

Ask His Spirit to fill you? Ask His breath, the Breath, “Ruach Elhim” to fill you. He will make you new. Alive. Free. And born again.

But, how many times do we forgive Peter asked Jesus? “Seventy times seven”, Jesus answered him. (Matt. 18: 21-22)

And my guess is, Peter didn’t become a calloused betrayer, a bold, sometimes coarse, outspoken disciple because he loved and easily forgave people.

In fact, after Jesus’ death, Peter left the city, and went back to standing isolated on a boat, out in the sea, away from people.

But, Peter was also the same follower who stepped out on the water, and walked towards Jesus. He encountered the risen Savior and was never the same because of it.

Peter went from living alone to loving and forgiving people.

When Jesus confirmed Peter’s love for Him, God’s love poured out from Peter, and that influenced generations.

“If you love me, go feed my sheep.” (John 21)

See, we cannot fully love God and remain bitterness towards other people.

If our hearts and heads are close to the Father, He will lead us into grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation with those that are safe around us.

If Jesus can take a lone fisherman and make Him the ministers of many people, Jesus can touch and heal both you and me.

Before Jesus passed He told Peter…

“I tell you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.” (Matt. 16:18)

Jesus flips the script, making Peter a people loving, church builder. 

Corrie Ten Boom wrote, “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”

Who do you need to forgive today?

 

The following is an excert from the Hiding Place, a book written about Corrie Ten Boom’s final act of forgiveness….

“A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”

And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course — how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?

But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. I was face to face with one of my captors, and my blood seemed to freeze.

“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard there… But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein” — again the hand came out —“will you forgive me?”

And I stood there — I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven — and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

The soldier stood there expectantly, waiting for Corrie to shake his hand. She “wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us.”

Standing there before the former S.S. man, Corrie remembered that forgiveness is an act of the will — not an emotion. “Jesus, help me!” she prayed. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”

Corrie thrust out her hand.

And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart.”

** Corrie ten Boom, with Jamie Buckingham, Tramp for the Lord. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975), 217–218