Monday, October 4, 2010

Keep Your Head On

Forgiveness. It can be viewed either as a weakness, or the key to release. Forgiving others their sins against me can be very hard. When I am wronged, or feel wronged, by someone, my first response is not to forgive that person. I usually react with anger, insolence, or a vengeful attitude. I react even stronger when someone I care about hurts me. I have had to learn this lesson recently as two close friends spurned my friend and I. We felt as if they "left us out to dry", if you know what I mean. I went to these two people Friday and admitted I was angry and needed forgiveness, and was forgiven by one.

What I've learned this weekend about forgiving others is that forgiveness, like everything else, is part of spiritual warfare. If I were to be in a sword fight with an enemy, there is a strong chance I will, at the least, get cut. Now if it were so to happen that my opponent slashed my arm, would I stop to cry, or pout, or cry foul, or be put off? No, because these options would lower my defenses, and then my opponent would wack my head off. I would have to stay strong and fight back with my own weapon, which, in the world of spiritual warfare, could be forgiveness.

It is the same with us. When a friend hurts me, I cannot get bent out of shape about it, or I give Satan an opportunity to do even more damage. The apostle Paul addressed this with encouragement to rejoice in persecution. He foretold that Christians everywhere would suffer persecution, but we should not fear because God would be with us.

In conclusion, we should forgive anyone who has wronged us. Some would ask why we ought to forgive those who wronged us. They would wonder why we should do something nice for them when they did nothing but hurt us. We should because it releases us. If we chose to not forgive, then we hold ourselves hostage in an unbarred prison in which we can choose to walk out of, if we could only forgive. Chose to forgive, and you chose to be free.

PS, my apologies for not blogging recently. I went on vacation, and my blog lost it's appeal up until now. I'm back on, full force.

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