What is forgiveness?
Forgiveness is the intentional, voluntary decision to no longer allow the offense of another person toward you to dwell in your mind, heart or spirit. Forgiveness is the act of understanding Ephesians 6:12 King James Version (KJV): For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
By understanding Ephesians 6:12, we understand it is not beneficial to use our time fighting against people who do wrong toward us because we understand that behind every action is a spirit. It is completely understandable, however, that our flesh may want revenge when someone has done wrong toward us, but again, we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places. So, if we wrestle against the spiritual then we must use spiritual principles.
What are those relevant spiritual principles we must use?
Just a couple of those principals include Luke 6:28- pray for those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you and Matthew 5:44- love your enemies and pray for those which despitefully use you and persecute you. Keep in mind, forgiveness will be extremely difficult if we are not spending time reading and meditating on the word of God or surrounding ourselves and thoughts, on a daily basis, on things that are noble, pure, lovely, and admirable, as the bible says in Philippians 4:8.
Are we to just let the person who offended us continue to hurt us?
That’s a good question. Some people may feel that if they forgive someone, then they have let the person off the hook or somehow excuse or condone the wrong behavior. Let me set the record straight and say this is not remotely true. When we forgive others, we are in fact letting ourselves off the hook from holding on to baggage (i.e., hurt and pain) from the past and allowing ourselves to freely move forward in life in peace, joy, and happiness.
Forgiveness is a process, so stay connected to Read Part 2!