Forgiveness

I’m sure most of you reading this blog knows what the Bible says about forgiveness, but if you don’t, Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” We can see by Jesus’ words how important forgiving others is if we want to be forgiven, but that is not the only thing forgiving others can do for us.

We’ve all been hurt at some point in our lives, and it’s easy to want to take those feelings and put up a wall. Often we may think that we have to stay guarded and never let people in based off of those feelings. This is where forgiveness can change our lives for the better.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean condoning what someone has done to you, denying our own feelings of hurt, or that there shouldn’t be consequences for the person who wronged us.

Forgiveness means letting go of the resentments that keep us tied to the wrong committed to us. When we forgive we can heal and move forward with life without allowing anger and hurt to waste too much of our mental and emotional energy. Forgiveness is as much (or more) for ourselves as it is for the other person.

There’s been numerous studies that show how forgiveness affects our physical and emotional health. It’s not always easy, but it’s something that we should constantly practice. If we take the time to understand what Jesus said about forgiveness and what it can do for us spiritually and naturally, not only will we heal naturally, we’ll also grow spiritually.

Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. - Colossians 3:13