Blocking Your Blessing (Part 7)

Blocking Your Blessing (Part 7)

Perhaps the biggest of all blessing blockers is unforgiveness. God expects us to forgive others who wrong us because He forgives us. We forgive our enemies, not only because God commands it, but because if we don’t then God won’t forgive us our trespasses according to Matthew 6:15.  As you mature in Christ, you're more able to get over feelings of unforgiveness and your inability to forgive. It's not only disobedient to God’s Word, but it took steals too much energy to hold onto hurts of the past. 

It takes energy and thought to create hate, and I’m not going to let the enemy get so much of me. Once you realize forgiveness is freeing, it becomes much easier to do. Trust me on this.  What enabled me to become a forgiving person is the fact that God fully disapproves of hate and anger. I refuse to allow the enemy to steal my right-standing with God. 

 

-Forgiveness is for God’s sake and our sake as well. 

It actually has very little to do with the person who has hurt or wronged us, but it has everything to do with God and our obedience to Him. 

-Forgiveness never means we’re accepting of abusive behavior or that we’re sending a message that it’s alright for people to treat us badly because we’ll forgive them regardless. 

On the contrary, it frees us from the web or cycle of abusive people.  We have every right to cut off an abusive person and still be able to forgive them. We’re allowed to close the door on hurtful relationships. We have that freedom! Cutting off someone who is toxic to us doesn’t mean we hate that person or that we can’t forgive them. It means we realize we deserve and demand better for ourselves. 

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be happy in life. God doesn’t expect us to keep abusive people around. So God’s Word tells us that if we don’t forgive others He won’t forgive us. Right there we see where unforgiveness blocks our blessings. Paul said in Romans 12:20, 21: 

“If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.” 

-Forgiveness does not minimize, justify or excuse the wrong that was done. It frees us from the pain and brings us peace. 

-Forgiveness is not between us and the person who wronged us, it's between us and God! Forgiveness doesn't mean we have to associate with that person again. We can forgive from afar and the Lord will heal our hurts! Whether we receive an apology from our offender or not, we must make the decision to forgive anyway as Matthew 5:44 decrees. 

We may be able to forgive, but does that mean we automatically forget the offense against us? 

-It’s impossible to erase memories or thoughts from our minds, but we must work to forget what is behind and strive toward what is ahead-Philippians 3:13.  

-We must focus our hearts on forgiveness and love so that a root of bitterness does not spring up in our hearts-Hebrews 12:15. 

-Don’t allow bitterness, anger, and hate to rob you of God’s reward-2 John 1:8. 

If someone has abused you then precautions need to be taken. Forgive the offender, but if it puts you in danger to be around this person, then you need to take action and sever the relationship. Forgiveness and trust are two totally different things as Proverbs 22:3 says:

 “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” 

Sometimes we think we’ve forgiven a person, but then thoughts of what they did to us won’t let us be, angering us each time we think about it. Then we believe we haven’t genuinely forgiven that person or why else would we still be feeling anger? Here’s the thing, memories are going to pop into our heads without our control. That doesn’t mean we haven’t forgiven our offender, it just means we’re human and our thoughts sometimes get the best of us.    

One thing to keep in mind is that forgiveness happens in the heart, not the head. Once the heart forgives and decides to move on, having sporadic thoughts about the offense later, along with a twinge of anger, does not mean you haven’t forgiven that person. Those feelings stick around for awhile, helping us to put things into perspective and caution us against trusting that person too quickly next time. Again, forgiveness boils down to what God wants for us. He wants us to keep His Word so that we can be forgiven and receive our blessings.   

 

Free yourself today from anger, hate, and unforgiveness. Align your mind with the mind of Christ. Start living in victory!