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Do you have an enemy you would like to destroy? Then forgive him. Make a friend of him, at least from your side of the fence.
Do you have someone you have been unforgiving toward for years? Think of them and you can taste the bile in your throat? Boy, you sure are showing them, aren’t you?
You are having trouble forgiving someone…then go through the motions anyway. Shake their hands…smile at them…do everything you would do if you had actually forgiven them. In short, act like you have forgiven them and then perhaps one day it may no longer be acting.
Why do I continue towrite so often about forgiveness? Because it is so important. It was so important to Christ that it was the last request He made of his Father.
Things were pretty brutal for Christ at the end. He had been lied about and beaten and forced to carry His own cross along a rocky path to Golgotha.
And though He had preached love for nearly three years, He could feel the hate around Him like a living thing. They had pounded nails through his hands and feet and thrust a spear into his side and spat on him…yet His response to all this was, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
With that thought in mind, let me share with you a few things we actually do when we forgive one of our fellow human beings.
We free ourselves from two bugaboos: being judgmental and condemnatory.
If we don’t forgive, we go into full negative thinking mode; we start keeping track of what this person is doing, or not doing, so we can have more ammunition for not forgiving them. Remember the married couple at the beginning of this series? How does that Proverb go, “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. ”
And, if we take our forgiveness one step higher and love our enemies, as Christ told us to do, it frees us from carrying all that bitterness mixed with anger around in our back pocket.
I also understand that the someone you can’t forgive might be that person on the other side of your front door: husband, wife, children, in-laws; all squaring off, protecting their “space. ”
So, in closing, let me offer give some suggestions on how to begin accomplishing the IMPOSSIBLE.
1. Greet your enemy with a smile rather than a snarl. A snarl may more rightly fit your mood but we aren’t talking about mood, we’re talking about actions.
2. Treat them with respect. That’s right…if you go through the motions…the
Emotions may well follow from behind. And who knows, your enemy may follow your lead and began to forgive you. Don’t hold your breath, but it does happen more times than you might imagine.
3. Refuse to say mean and thoughtless things about your enemy. The temptation is always there…to explain to a friend how badly you have been hurt and what that other person did. Ruin their reputation. They deserve it. No…you deserve to be better than that.
4. Here are three final thoughts that, at first hearing you may find difficult to consider, but listen well for there is the hint of heaven in them. .
Thank God for your enemy.
What credit do you gain when you’re nice to nice people? That’s easy. But if you can learn to be nice to your enemies, then you will give yourself the opportunity to grow emotionally and spiritually. So love your enemies. That’s right. No pain. No gain.
Pray for them.
“May they rot in hell. ” That prayer has been prayed many times, but surely you’re
better than that, aren’t you? And besides, from your angry point of view …is there anyone who needs praying for more than your enemy?
Ask God to bless them.
Anything less just proves that though you know the Christian tune, you just haven’t learned how to sing it.
I forget who said these closing words, but it is a thought we all should carry with us every minute of every day.
Let the past be past at last.
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