Forgiving

[shawn_h76]

I was confused and discouraged on the topic of forgiveness about a year ago. I thought," Could God really not forgive me if i don't forgive others". Or, "How do i know if i have don't have unforgiveness in my heart. The devil used this weekness agasint me to cause me to doubt.
Lets see what the bible says about forgiveness.
In mattew 6:15, Jesus tells us if you dont forgive your brothers your Heavenly Father wont forgive you.

• Mattew 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

But in luke 17, Jesus tells us if your brother trepasses agasint you rebuke him, and if he repent forgive him.

• Luke 17
  3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
  4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

So, if your brother sins agasint you rebuke him; and if he repents forgive him.
What are your veiws on this topic?

 

[Lilly of the Valley]

You need to forgive the person whether they repent or not. And if you rebuke them it needs to be in a loving way. Also, if you hold unforgiveness, the Lord will not forgive you of your sins until you let it go and forgive , just like He has said.

 

[KleinerApfel]

Agree, you need to forgive even the person who hasn't repented.
Then hand the matter over to God; it's no longer your concern. Don't fret over their unrepentant state - it's between them and God now.

But you also have a duty to let them know, calmly and gently, that they have wronged you, to give them the opportunity to repent. Can be difficult to tell someone they've hurt you, but it opens the opportunity for restoration between you as well as getting right with God.

Blessings, Susana

 

[Yummi]

To forgive is something very difficult to do, we must learn it. Pray first to be able to forgive if you find it too hard, and be really WILLING TO. Never stop to pray God and don't believe Satan's lies. In fact, I think God has forgiven all our sins in Jesus Christ, and if he asks us to forgive, it's to be a fruit of our own forgiveness. We did not deserve to be forgiven, we grieved God unnumerous times, but he showed us mercy. So we are expected to give freely to those who don't deserve it, to prove that we understood what Jesus did for us and to make known the grace of God to those who need it. Don't be discouraged if it's hard. That's what the cross means. It takes time to be able to forgive without pain, never cease to endeavor and pray.

 

[Blessed2003]

I agree with everyone. I have always heard that forgiveness is releasing someone from something you feel they owe you. I have always taken that to mean emotions, not necessarily money or material things. I can think of a few times in my life where I have had to forgive someone that I did not feel like forgiving. I have always started with prayer first. I ask God to bless them, and to help me forgive them. It has always worked, so far. By far the hardest was my ex-husband. There were a lot of hurtful issues between the two of us. It took me a lot of praying for him even though I was very angry at him. I am so glad I did now.
After our divorce he left town, and no one knew where he was for a couple of months. My son, and I were very hurt when he left. He quit paying child support, let our house get forclosed on, and just quit being responsible, period. Then one day, he called, crying. He begged me to let him see our son, my heart was tottaly broken by his crying. I swallowed my pride and told him that I would never keep him from his son, and that he could get on his feet and then resume child support payments. He lost everything, and I hate to think what it would have done to both of us, and our son had I not been praying about forgiveness. God enabled me to see finally, that my ex-husband was not so bad after all, and that he was just hurting. I was hurting too, and we were both at fault, (although I could not see that before) it was a moment I will never forget. It changed us both. We are still divorced but we are friends, which is more than we ever were when we were married. It formed a bond between us that won't be broken, to always do good for each other, and never hurt one another again. Thank God, we all need forgiveness, in one form or another.

 

[rogsr]

My friend,
Don't be so sin minded or all you'll have on your mind sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. And if things are that way then geuss who is going to end up sinning the most? That's right, you. Don't worry about other peoples sins, but if you show them a lot of love and show them a good example by the way you live your life then they will sin less. Get it?

This advice is not going against the scriptures that you used. Their meaning is this -- If your nieghbor wrongs you, like lets say steals somethings valuable from you, it is ok to get a little mad and tell him that it was a messed up thing to do; but if he is sorry for it then we must forgive him, even he has done that to us before or does it again.