Freedom Through Forgivenessনমুনা

Life Is Better When We Forgive

Can you imagine not thinking about the pain that you experienced anymore? Can you see your blood pressure lowering? Can you see yourself not having a pain in your heart when you see the person who caused the pain? Forgiveness is the beginning of all of these benefits. Remember, peace is not acting like the pain never happened. Forgiveness initiates the healing process, allowing the pain to have a lesser impact on your life.

Forgiveness Brings Joy

Let's go back to how they catch monkeys. As long as that monkey is holding on to the bait, it will be trapped and, ultimately, captured. What if that monkey was smart enough to let go as it saw the hunter coming, to run away? That monkey's life would have been changed if it had let go. It will continue to be free.

"Unforgiveness is a prison where you hold the key." – Unknown.

Sometimes people choose to live in unforgiveness for a long time. I have never heard of a prisoner who holds the key to their own cell, but this is what living in unforgiveness is like. When you choose not to forgive, you decide to stay locked up. When you think that you are benefiting from holding a grudge against someone, you will continue to hold it, and you will totally miss how you are keeping yourself trapped.

When you forgive, you will live in peace and joy that you haven't experienced in a while. I have heard many people say, "I feel like a burden has been lifted off of me." Well, they are right. Just because the burden isn't something that you can see doesn't mean that it isn't weighing you down. When you forgive, you can experience the joy of the Lord again.

Joy Brings Health

"A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." - Proverbs 17:22 ESV

Unforgiveness crushes your spirit. It weighs you down, keeping you down even when you try to move forward with your life. Forgiveness is the sign of a joyful heart. When you choose to forgive, you demonstrate that you are not harboring grudges in your heart. You understand that God forgave you so that you can, in turn, forgive others.

That joyful heart is good medicine, and you will need it as you heal from what happened to you.

Forgiveness Is Better for Life

Almost everything I said earlier leads to this point: Living a life of forgiveness is the best life you can live. It's better than a life of money, fame, popularity, or anything else that you think makes your life better. Forgiveness is the key to living the life that God has for you.

Forgiveness Allows You to Live in Peace

God wants us to live in peace. He doesn't want us to worry and fret about anything. He wants us to live a joyful and peaceful life with ourselves and others. Some people try to find peace through money, the opposite sex, relationships, and many other things. We were made to live in peace, and that's why lots of people try anything to attain it. However, neither money, people, relationships, positions, nor anything else will bring you peace as God can.

The truth of the matter is that God has already provided peace to you in your heart.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." - John 14:27 ESV

Jesus says plainly that He leaves you with peace. Then He doubled down on it and said, "My peace I give to you." You already have the peace of God residing within you if you are a child of God. Not everyone has this peace, but you do. It's there whether you feel like it is or not. The main reason we may not feel like it is that there is the phrase right after: "Not as the world gives do I give to you."God's peace won't come from actions of the world.

We will not experience the peace of God by holding on to unforgiveness. Why do we try to get something that we already have through actions we are not supposed to do? We think we are missing something, but the truth is that we already have it. However, to experience something that God has given you, you must live your life the way He says.

Peace is NOT the Absence of Problems

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 ESV

Imagine saying to someone, "Hey, you are going to have some tough times ahead, but don't worry, you can have peace." Some people will not understand this because they correlate peace with the absence of problems. People say, "If I were born to a rich family, I wouldn't have this problem. If I had married that other person, I would have had a better marriage. If my parents had prepared me better, I would be a better person." None of these excuses matters in the long run. Yes, there may be some trauma in your past that you may have to work extra hard to overcome, but you CAN still overcome.

If you believe that the reason you don't have peace is because of the problems in your life, you are mistaken. The problem isn't the problem; the problem is how you see the problem. Jesus never EVER said that problems could stop you. That's why He is saying, "I am telling you this, so you have peace." If the problem stopped you, Jesus would have died for that, too.

"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." - 1 John 5:4 ESV

There is no problem that is bigger than you. God lives in you, and there is nothing bigger than God, so that means that there is nothing bigger than you. God gave you peace, and if He gave it to you, that means you have it. So, the problem is NOT the problem.

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." - Colossians 3:15 ESV emphasis added.

For you to allow something to work, you must have possession of it. We were made to allow peace to rule our hearts. That is how we were designed to work. The peace of God is in our hearts.

If you don't forgive, you won't experience the peace that God gave you. Someone can give you something that you don’t use. I know of a person who received a very nice car but didn't use it because the insurance was too high for their budget.

On the same note, if someone gave you a car that's a stick shift, that doesn't mean that you know how to drive it. Sometimes you must learn how to activate what you have.

Forgiveness is one of the key decisions that enables you to experience the peace you desire.

When we live in unforgiveness, we are stopping the peace of God from being active in our lives. The peace is there, wanting to get out. But when we don't forgive, we won't experience the benefits of the peace that we have.