For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6
This is a tough passage in the New Testament. People sin against us all the time. They back stab us, they steal from us and they deceive us. How are we to forgive them and continue our relationship with them knowing what they have done in the past?
What about those who ask for forgiveness and we forgive and then keep doing the same thing we forgave them for in the past?
I admire the people who after losing a loved one to a drunk driver, forgive the person whose drinking and driving led to the loss of their loved one. This I would imagine would be very hard.
God commands us to forgive the transgressions of our brothers and sisters and even addresses the continual sinning
In Matthew 18 it says “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
This would appear to be inhuman as how much must we endure?
In Jeremiah, God prophecy’s
"No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
God will not only forgive but remember their sin no more. How much easier would it be to forgive if we could also let go of the memory of the sin.
We all have someone close to us we need to forgive who has sinned against us and we need to forgive them if they ask. But there is also someone very near and dear to us we need to forgive. It is ourselves.
We have wronged people and we done things we were not proud of and we have said things we should not have said to others. Some of those things we have said to ourselves beating ourselves up. The first person we need to forgive is ourselves.
Whatever we did or said is in the past and nothing can be done about it except to ask for forgiveness and do better here on out. Forgive AND forget. Forgive yourself, understand you are human and frail but know your heart is a heart of gold and you are a child of God. He proclaims that He will forgive you and welcome you into His kingdom. Thy Kingdom come..
God Bless and know you are forgiven by God.
