Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just
as God in Christ also has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).

The second step in resolving past conflicts is to forgive those who
have offended you. After encouraging Cindy, a rape victim, to deal with
the emotional trauma of her rape, I said, "Cindy, you also need to
forgive the man who raped you." Cindy’s response was typical of
many believers who have suffered physical, sexual or emotional pain at
the hands of others: "Why should I forgive him? You don’t know how
badly he hurt me!"

"He’s still hurting you, Cindy," I responded.
"Forgiveness is how you stop the pain. You don’t forgive him for
his sake; you do it for your sake."

Why should you forgive those who have hurt you in the past?

First, forgiveness is required by God. As soon as Jesus spoke the
amen to His model prayer–which included a petition for God’s
forgiveness–He commented: "If you forgive men for their
transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you
do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your
transgressions" (Matthew 6:14, 15). We must base our relationships
with others on the same criteria on which God bases His relationship
with us: love, acceptance and forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35).

Second, forgiveness is necessary to avoid entrapment by Satan. I
have discovered from my counseling that unforgiveness is the number one
avenue Satan uses to gain entrance to believers’ lives. Paul encouraged
mutual forgiveness "in order that no advantage be taken of us by
Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes" (2 Corinthians
2:11). Unforgiveness is an open invitation to Satan’s bondage in our
lives.

Third, we are to forgive like Christ forgave in order to keep our
hearts from bitterness. Paul wrote: "Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all
malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each
other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you" (Ephesians
4:31, 32).

Your act of forgiveness will set the captive free, then you will
realize that the captive was you!

This daily devotional is published and distributed by
http://www.GOSHEN.net/ . It is written by Neil Anderson at
http://www.freedominchrist.com/ .

Related Articles:

• Henri Nouwen – more wisdom
• LIVING A WHOLE LIFE (Richard Rohr)
• Faith and feelings
• Beautiful video with a comforting message…
• Wisdom from Henri Nouwen

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.