t’s been my experience that to be forgiven is almost as uncomfortable as to forgive. I can remember an occasion when I knew I had to go ask someone to forgive me for an insulting comment I had made in anger. I got myself up to apologising and asking for his forgiveness. The person accepted my apology but showed immense discomfort at being asked for forgiveness.

We apologise, but asking to be forgiven is a little different. People don’t often experience it. It’s a bit odd, because on the occasions that I have been asked to forgive people for their behaviour or comments, I’ve felt a sense of relief flood over me when I did it. Forgiving someone made me feel so much better, but also, when I’ve asked people to forgive me and they have, then I’ve felt released too.

So, either way, forgiving or forgiven, you feel better for it. No wonder there’s someone who wants to make it uncomfortable. Sometimes when something happens that annoys you, there’s a little voice that continues to whisper in your ear about it - just to remind you, lest you forget!

ut you don’t have to listen. Because if you rehearse your anger and bitterness, that just harms you. And you’re the one to blame - not the person who wronged you, but you, who end up wronging yourself more. Forgiveness is simple, but not necessarily easy to do. It is an act of will. I choose not to think about how I’ve been wronged any more. I choose not to hold a grudge.

I have to fight at times not to allow these sorts of thoughts to fill my mind - thoughts of wrongs suffered, insults made at me, actions of others that have made me feel angry or jealous. I also have to face up to the fact that their actions aren’t necessarily wrong; it may be how I react to those actions that may be wrong. Here, I can only get forgiveness from God, who is the Judge of all. But, fortunately God is only too willing to forgive us our wrongs.

Jesus died to pay the fee for us to enter a relationship with the Father, God. All we have to do is to accept that Jesus’ death on the cross is in my place so that He died and went to Hell so that I don’t have to. He also overcame Hell and all the power of the devil, so that I can have freedom from the inability to forgive people. What a wonderful freedom He won for me - and you too, if you accept His terms. Though it seems too easy (there must be a catch), but God wanted it to be easy enough for any one to understand and to respond to. Don’t let the fact that it isn’t some heroic feat let you think it’s not important. If it were something hard or complicated or fearsome then it would not be freely available to everyone, as not everyone could respond. But anyone can say yes, please, thank you, Jesus.

Chris

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