Forgiveness Is Not For Them
Forgiveness Is Not for Them
Forgiveness does not mean what happened was acceptable. It means you are no longer willing to let it hold you.
One of the most freeing truths about forgiveness is that it is far less about the person who hurt you and far more about you. Forgiveness is not a gift you give to someone who wronged you. It is a gift you give to yourself. It is the decision to stop letting someone else's actions determine the condition of your heart. And that is something worth doing for your own sake as much as anyone else's.
This week the question is not whether the person deserves to be forgiven. The question is whether you deserve to be free.
"bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do."
Colossians 3:13 · NKJVScripture quoted from the New King James Version (NKJV).
Even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. That is both the standard and the source. We forgive not from our own strength but from the overflow of having been forgiven so completely and so freely ourselves. When the weight of forgiving someone feels too heavy, return to that. You were forgiven everything. That changes the math entirely.
Holding onto a grievance does not protect you from the person who hurt you. It keeps you tethered to the moment it happened. Forgiveness cuts that rope.
This does not mean the relationship has to be restored. It does not mean trust is automatically rebuilt. It does not mean the hurt did not matter. It simply means you are choosing to hand the weight of it to God and stop carrying it yourself. That is enough. That is everything.
Forgiveness is not forgetting. It is releasing your grip on something that was never meant to stay in your hands this long.
- Is there someone I have been withholding forgiveness from and what has that cost me personally?
- Is there something I have not yet forgiven myself for and what would it feel like to receive grace for it today?
- Write out what you want to release and end it with the words, I give this to You, Lord.
Lord, I want to be free. I place what I have been carrying at Your feet today. I choose to release it not because it did not hurt but because You are a better keeper of it than I am. Receive it from me. And fill the space it leaves behind with Your peace. Amen.
With love and grace,
Honeycomb & Heart