At various times of crisis in my life I have struggled with anger and bitterness. It’s not hard to feel that people have treated us wrongly, if only because people are imperfect.
It usually takes us by complete surprise when someone tells us we have hurt them, so we shouldn’t be surprised when we feel injured and no one steps up to the plate to apologize. It’s the blindness of human nature. As much as some people insist Christians should only call themselves saints and never redeemed sinners, redeemed sinners is what saints really are. I like the way John Newton put it: “I am a great sinner, but Christ is a great Saviour.”
Hurt often occurs in church, because church is family. Family is the place of deepest trust and relationship, and when that goes wrong it is devastating.
Jesus told a story about two debtors. One had a vast debt forgiven by his master, then went out and tried to collect a much smaller debt a fellow servant owed him. When the master found out, he threw the first man into prison.
After one particular situation where I felt my family was wronged and badly so, I realized I was facing a battle. If I took Jesus’ parable of the two debtors seriously, I was in danger of handing myself over to what Jesus called the tormentors due to my own lack of forgiveness. And in that moment, I had a revelation. The harm I was going to do to myself by harbouring unforgiveness and letting it warp my attitude toward others and toward God was far greater than anything anyone had done to me. I forgave and moved on.
But what is forgiveness? Forgiveness is not papering over what happened. If you don’t put what happened out on the table and express it outwardly, you can’t forgive. Forgiveness means acknowledging the wrong, then taking it and giving it to God as the only One able to give true judgment.
Unforgiveness means taking the place of God and placing ourselves on his seat of judgment. But we have no right to sit in the place reserved only for the truly perfect and holy God. Our sin in nailing Jesus to the cross was far worse than anything anyone else ever did to us, because Jesus alone bore no guilt, not only on the day he was crucified but in his entire earthly life.
If you’re angry today because you’re carrying an offence, take your anger to God. Let go of it. Hand the person over to him. You’ll be amazed how the weight begins to lift.
We all judge churches by certain standards. What is the worship like? How good is the preaching? How about the kids’ ministry? Is it a nice building?
Those things all have some validity, but how about being in a church where forgiveness was contagious and there wasn’t a single open or buried offence left?
Think about it. That’s the church a lost world is looking for. And the answer lies in our hands
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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