forgiveness begins at home
One of the things I have become absolutely, totally, convinced of, is that there is a lot of hurt and pain in our families.  So many people are nursing wounds and grudges against, parents, children, siblings and spouses.  In life we face many set backs, disappointments, and heart breaks.  Some events in life are easier to get over, some seem to keep us mired in anger and self-pity. If you are full of pain and anger, the last thing you would like to hear today, is that you need to forgive.  Yet unforgiveness is, in fact a very real issue for most people.  Nearly everyone has someone(s) they have not forgiven.
We can’t talk about forgiveness without at the outset acknowledging the pain you are experiencing.  Pain is real!  Some act as though the pain is not real.  It is real! It is only because we have been hurt, that we need to offer forgiveness.
There are so many wounded people in our world.  Not just in our world, but in our neighborhoods, churches and homes.  Many of the wounds are large, therefore they need a God-sized solution: forgiveness.
Let me state this clearly, everyone gets hurt and everyone will get hurt.  You can count on it happening.  You will be wronged, mistreated and harmed in some way by some one.let me share a verse with you:
Eph 4:32
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Forgiveness is not an option for a Christian, it is a command. You might be saying, you have no idea what they did to me, you have no right to ask me to forgive them, I will never be able to forgive.  I believe that to be a true statement.  We must realize that as followers of Christ that His grace is sufficient for every situation.  Most of us choose to become “debt collectors.”  We determine that the guilty party should pay for what they have done.  Regardless of what happens we have every intention of keeping the person obligated to us, by nursing the hurts and as it were keeping them in a debtors prison in our minds.
The problem is that rather keeping the other person in a prison, we become a prisoner.
As believers if we continue on the path of unforgiveness we are forced to face the real issue: our actions amount to disobedience.
This Sunday we are going to look at the story that Jesus told in Matthew 18.  Living Forgiving.

Forgiving is not minimizing the damage, letting the person off the hook.  Forgiveness is not ignoring the problem.  Forgiveness does offer grace to the offending party, but forgiveness sets us free.

Do you want to free?

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