New Hope Covenant Church

"Things Everyone Should Know About Forgiving" 
Let?s say that you?ve been hurt. Somebody you counted on let you down. Somebody you trusted betrayed you in your trust. Somebody who promised to take care of you, instead took advantage of you. The hurt goes deep. What makes the pain worse is that you were wronged. You did not have it coming. Nobody deserves to be treated the way you were treated. It was not fair.

One thing is for sure. You cannot change what happened. There is no delete button for the past. You are stuck with it. You cannot forget what happened. You cannot erase it from your mind. It is like a video tape sewed inside your head. And every time it plays its rerun, you feel the pain all over again.

Now you have to make the hard decision. Do you want to spend the rest of your life with a pain that you did not deserve to get in the first place? Or do you want to be rid of it, healed, freed from it, so that you can go on with your life without that painful memory shadowing you?

There is one way to heal yourself. It is not one way among many. It is the only way. God invented it. It did wonders for him and does wonders for us. We call it forgiving. And God tells us to try it for ourselves. "Forgive each other," the Good Book says, "as God in Christ forgave you."

It is so simple. And yet people often misunderstand what forgiving is. And what it isn?t. So I want to share five simple things about forgiving just to clear up some mistaken notions about God?s way of healing unfair pain.

Proverbs 20:3,22

Matthew 5:38?42, 18:21-35

John 20:19-23 (MSG)

19 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, "Peace to you." 20 Then he showed them his hands and side. The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. 21 Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you." 22 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said. 23 "If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?"

Prov 19:11 (MSG)

11 Smart people know how to hold their tongue; their grandeur is to forgive and forget.

2 Cor 2:6-11 (MSG)

6 What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. 7 Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. 8 My counsel now is to pour on the love. 9 The focus of my letter wasn't on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church.

 10 So if you forgive him, I forgive him. Don't think I'm carrying around a list of personal grudges. The fact is that I'm joining in with your forgiveness, as Christ is with us, guiding us. 11 After all, we don't want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief?we're not oblivious to his sly ways!