Forgiven People Should Be Forgiving People

So, a good friend of mine and I have recently been taking about the idea of forgiveness and I though I’d go back to my favorite subject again and talk about it. It’s the root of our salvation, so why not keep it in the forefront of our daily talks, right? “Forgiven people should be forgiving people”! Yes!You see, God gave us forgiveness and redemption through His son Jesus, why would we not deliver the same thing to those who hurt us? What makes His forgiveness unconditional and our’s subjective? It doesn’t and it shouldn’t. I’m not saying that it’s easy, I’m just saying we have to. Carrying resentment around in our hearts is a cancer that will eventually eat us alive. Earlier in the year I wrote about this and it is always worth revisiting. “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”Colossians 3:13 What does this “forgiveness” look like in our world? Well, it is a decision that we make to cancel the debt, regardless of whether someone even admits what they did was wrong or owns up to how they hurt us.This may seem like a hard decision to make, but remember that we are designed by God to forgive. We will be fulfilled at the core only when we choose to release others from what we think they “owe” us. We might think they owe us an apology. We might feel they are indebted to us and should therefore receive retaliation from us as a form of payback. But true forgiveness is a no-strings-attached, total release from anything we think they owe us or deserve as “punishment.”Who can you release today by your forgiveness?Have a great weekend!Be Nice. Grace wins.