Healthy Forgiveness

     As I was praying and thinking about The Lord’s Prayer(which should actually be called the disciple’s prayer) God showed me a truth I hadn’t thought about before. When Jesus says “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” He means right now, immediately.  At the very moment when the wrong is done to us we must to let it go. (1 Corinthians 6:7)

     Recently a man tailgated me on the freeway. I was doing 65 in the left hand lane and passing a slower car.  The man that came roaring up on my car came so close to getting me. All I could see was grill in my rearview mirror. Up comes that adrenalin rush made up of a mixture of fear and anger, and also a smidge of bewilderment. He literally seemed to fly up from nowhere. I whipped back into the right hand lane as soon as I could, laying on my own horn the whole time!

     As they flew by the passenger was screaming at me. What, I don’t know, obscenities I think. I yelled back something like “You almost ran me over you Jerk!!!” Even with everything happening in that knifes-edge of a moment I thought “Where is the Christian response in this? Where is the gentle heart of Jesus? All the yelling and screaming went great with the Christian fish on the back of my car….I’ve been feeling pretty discouraged since then but the Lord showed me my mistake.

    Forgiveness. I guess I always think that somehow this is for later after I have had a chance to sob, whine , shout, pout, rant, and seek someone else out to say “There, There.” Or whatever I feel I need to do to deal with the situation (fill in blank) in which I have been wronged, and THEN *sniff, sniff* I can forgive….maybe.

   But, the Lord showed me that the reason I failed with my temper and reaction with that crazy driver and his friend is because forgiveness is supposed to be immediate. Yes, only Christ has the power to do that, but He wants to give it to me too, in fact He is eager to bestow it on me. This is my Savior who, as He hung on the cross, said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Right then, in all of His agony! And I know that as we walk surrendered in Him He supplies that same power to us.

    But, if we somehow think we have the time, privilege or the right to hold on to, nurse or coddle those feelings, of hurt, rage and unforgiveness that come with the injustices done towards us then we feel much freer to respond in the flesh. “I’ll forgive, Lord, I will. I just can’t yet.” But Jesus says, “Yes you can and you must, because I will do the forgiving through you if you let me.”

   I am really praying for the Spirit’s insight and power to recognize the need in the moment. I can be caught up so quickly and in full blown fight-mode before I even realize it. He wants me aware in His Spirit all of the time, because immediate forgiveness leads to immediate peace. The victory is to have no lag time between His command to forgive and what my heart and my mouth say about it. James 1:19 says “So then my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.” This is definitely not always my strength. Bu,t through my Savior I can do this. Anger and brooding makes stress and stress makes you sick! Jesus wants us to forgive for so many reasons, even if the person we forgive could care less. We do it for God, we do it for ourselves, and we do it to stop the enemy from injecting the poison of unforgiveness straight into our souls. I want a healthy mind, body and soul.  I want an unbroken connection with my Lord. And I do not want the stress and bad feelings that unforgiveness brings.  That’s just how Jesus made us!

Tonya Willman ©2010