"The heart that forgives is the heart that will live. Totally free from the pain of the past
And the heart that lets go is the heart that will know so much freedom." ---Kevin Levar & One Sound.
As a young child I use to think it was impossible for someone to forgive somebody for the hurt and pain that they may have caused. I remember watching Talk shows like Oprah, Rick Lake, Geraldo Rivera and Sally Jesse Raphael, where people would be on there describing horrific acts that someone had done to them. Most of the time it was family members or someone they were particularly close to. Yet towards the end of the show, they would always say how they forgave that person for what they did. I use to think it was a hoax, just something the producers told them to say. Until I experienced my own hurt and pain from people that I loved, and I had to learn how to forgive.
Forgiveness is never easy, but it is essential. Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door to your healing process. The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offense or debt. When we don't forgive those that have hurt us it causes us to become bitter and angry. It creates issues that become so deeply rooted in our heart that it prohibits are spiritual and natural growth. When we don't learn to forgive we carry around emotional baggage from relationship to relationship. "If we are congested it is hard for us to be a decongestant to someone else"---Dr. Jeffrey McCune. Thus we become a nation of people with hurt, hurting other people.
Mark 11:25 instructs us that when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your father in heaven may forgive your sins. In order to move forward and experience freedom we must understand how vital forgiveness is. Forgiveness is like the blood that flows from our hearts to the other organs in our body. When we don't forgive we block the flow with our emotional baggage. We experience "blood clots" called anger, bitterness and resentment and thus can not function properly. We can't love unconditionally, we have no joy, and no peace. In essence we become slaves to the hurt and pain that someone else has brought into our lives. Nevertheless, there is an answer to the problem, a prescription written from the best doctor himself, that will decongest all that congestion we refuse to let go of, and it is called forgiveness.
Good word. I like what Dr. McCune said. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome word. I was just speaking with someone about this yesterday and even learning more about it myself. Forgiveness is truly vital to your overall well being. Forgiveness helps us obtain more mercy from God but even naturally, if we don't forgive that emotional baggage of anger, bitterness, resentment can even manifest itself in our physical health and cause illness along with the effect that it has on other relationships.
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