Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

FORGIVENESS A scientist spent four years as a slave laborer in Germany. His parents were killed by Nazi street bullies; his younger sister and older brother were sent to the gas chambers. He is a man with every reason to hate, yet he is filled with such love that people often ask how it is possible. He says, "In the beginning, I was filled with hatred. Then I realized in hating I became my own jailer. Unless you can forgive, you cannot be free to love. And, without love, life has no meaning." Jesus talked often about forgiveness. It prompted his greatest parables and His most beautiful sermons. We must forgive, He said, if we are to be forgiven. When a person refuses to forgive those who have wronged him, bitterness and hatred get a foothold in that person's heart, and soon he is unhappy. The only way he can find happiness is to freely forgive those who have wronged him and trust the Lord to remove every trace of bitterness and hatred. Dr. Earl Loomis says, "The experience of forgiving and accepting forgiveness is a prime characteristic of the happy, creative personality." Perhaps we should ask the same question that Jesus posed in His parable: Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?