The power of forgiveness (2)

The great thing about forgiveness is that we don't realise how freeing it is until we've let things go and moved on. 'I told you so' may feel good temporarily but it doesn't restore. Revenge doesn't solve anything. However fair 'an eye for an eye' seems, Jesus outright rejects that way of thinking (see Matthew 5:38-39 NKJV).

What Jesus was saying wasn't new. Joseph, in the Old Testament, modelled how practical and freeing God's way of forgiveness is. When Joseph saw the brothers who'd sold him into slavery because he was annoying, he wanted his family back more than any ego-boosting revenge. Joseph understood that God had a plan bigger than anything his brothers had done, and restoring those relationships was the answer. So instead of causing them fear, he offered his brothers forgiveness. By forgiving them he released any anger he may have felt, and released them from the fear of revenge.

God does this for us all the time. Think: Jesus died so that we could be reunited with our Father, brought into family and brought out of fear (see Romans 8:15). We're not kept at arm's length, ignored or avoided, but instead we're embraced and adopted. To show anything other than grace to others who've hurt us is to imply that they're not also God's adopted children (a.k.a. our brothers and sisters!).



So what now? Read the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50. Ask God to give you the grace to practise forgiveness, to restore relationships in your life.





— SCRIPTURE —

'You did not receive the spirit of...fear, but...of adoption.' Romans 8:15 NKJV
— SOULFOOD —

Deut 30:1-32:28, Matt 10:1-10, Ps 62, Pro 12:18-19