You have heard me say and others how one scripture in the Bible is misquoted so many times. And that is the scripture about money. You hear people say "Money is the root of all evil", When in fact the scripture says, "The love of money is the root of all evil". You see it is not money that is evil, it is the love of money.
Well, there is another scripture that is taken out of context just as frequently, and I cringe even more when I hear this one. It is found in Mark. I only got a revelation of this myself about 3 years ago, and I am so sorry for every time I used it wrong.
Mark 11 v 25-26....And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.......
Yes this is Jesus speaking, but this is before the cross. Once Jesus died on the cross your sins were forgiven. and it was not by any works of yours. He died for ALL sins for EVERYONE, past present and future. To say that you have to forgive someone so that you can be forgiven would be to cancel out His FINISHED work on the cross. That would be you having to work for or earn your forgiveness. And that is just simply not true.
Forgiveness is Jesus' Grace to us. Free, unmerited, undeserved, unearned GRACE. We can not or will not ever be able to work for it, or earn it in any way through how good we are or how much we forgive anyone.
The reason I cringe when I hear that scripture is because there are so many hurting people out there who have been wronged in horrible ways that it takes time for them to be able to forgive. They need to know that God loves them anyway and that He forgives them even when they can't bring themselves to forgive those who have hurt them. His love will be sufficient for them to overcome their unforgiveness for others. It may just take some time.
Yes Forgvieness gives you a release, a freedom to be able to love more. Unforgiveness is a sin, and it is like a disease that will eat at you until it destroys you. But to tell people that they can not have God's forgiveness something His Son died on the cross for is a lie from the devil. It is another one of those times when the devil is quoting the word to you but taking it out of context like he did with Jesus in the dessert. Just like Jesus you have to rebuke him and tell him that yes the word does say that, but it is also written, that Jesus died on the cross for ALL sins, and He took care of that unforgiveness with His love for all of us not just some of us.
Let me show those who are dealing with unforgiveness how forgiveness will work in your favor. This is the scripture that helped me.
Romans 12 v 19...Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, " says the Lord. .....
This scripture is the Lord telling us to let it go, give it to Him, He wants to free us from this disease of unforgiveness that is eating away at us. Unforgiveness is our form of vengeance. He wants us to be healed of unforgiveness so that we can live. So that we can have that life that He promised us, an abundant life.
When we try to hold on to unforgiveness we are telling the Lord to take a seat that this problem is too big for Him to handle that we are bigger than Him and that we will have to take care of this one ourself. WOW! When a pastor told me that about my unforgiveness, it really hit me like a ton of bricks. I immediately apologized to the Lord for thinking that I was more able than Him.
You see God says that vengeance is His. So when we try to hold on to unforgiveness it is like we are taking something that does not belong to us. We are stealing from God in a sense. I am telling you once you get a revelation of this scripture and realize that you are holding on to something that does not belong to you and put it in its rightful place, give it to GOD, you will be set free. You will feel that release, you will see your unforgiveness under the Blood. And everytime it tries to rear its ugly head, just say take it up with God, you are not my problem anymore.
How can we find it in our hearts to forgive those who have wronged us?
STAY IN THE WORD!
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