Choosing Forgiveness

As we enter a new year, it's a great time to take stock of the roads we've traveled this year and the path we hope to walk in the coming year. Looking ahead, I can't think of a more important step for 2011 than to choose forgiveness.

Choosing to forgive has been the most essential step in my journey to freedom. For a long time, I didn't even realize that I needed to forgive those who had hurt me in the past or even in the present. When I became a Christian fifteen years ago, I left my deep hurts in the recesses of my heart behind locked doors. But when I realized that the safest of hands held the key to my heart, I gave God permission to unlock those doors. When He did, they slowly cracked open; simultaneously, His light streamed in while my heart's cries poured out.

During that time, I gave myself a precious gift - counseling - giving my experience a voice. In the telling of my story, I took significant steps on the journey of freedom.

Once I understood what my experience meant for other women, I published my testimony (Girl Perfect). But after a while, the Holy Spirit prompted me to go deeper by writing a companion Bible study to go with it (the Girl Perfect Study Guide). If I had known what God would do with my heart in the writing of this study, I'm not sure I would have ventured in. All the while thinking I was writing it for other women, I felt Him reaching into the farthest corridors of my heart that unbeknownst to me had remained shut. The unspoken hurts came trickling out while His living water washed me from the inside out.

I realized that not only did I need to privately take a good look at each and every one of my pains, but that I needed to take those who hurt me one by one to the throne and hand them over. It wasn't sufficient to just dismiss them. Instead, I actually had to look each hurt square in the eye, name it, and commit it to the Cross.

Not fun. But so freeing. So many of us don't want to go through the tough work of forgiveness. We find it easier to sweep our injuries under the rug and dismiss those who wounded us, instead of speaking directly of the pain while bringing the one who pained us to the Father. When we go through this process, our grievances are replaced with grace, and our histories become just that ... history. We don't carry those people or wounds anymore, and our burden is so much lighter.

Forgiving is a command: we are to forgive as the Lord Jesus forgave us (Col 3:13). And He didn't forgive us by ignoring our sin; instead, he took the hardest of looks at it and mercifully released us of it.

Mark 11:25 says, "When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you ...." If you hold anything against anyone. No wonder the prayer Jesus taught us includes forgiving others as we have been forgiven. He knew that each day we have the potential to carry the ways others have hurt us, so he told us to release our burdens with forgiveness every single day.

Do you have unspoken hurts that you need to bring before the Cross? Do you need help forgiving someone? Whether it begins with a whisper or a wail, we have One who empowers us to forgive any debt.

When people say Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Blessings to you in 2011 - make sure you slow down to take an honest stock of where you've been and where you want to go. Make forgiveness a choice for you this year. Refuse to carry any residue, bitterness, or baggage into the new year. These things will only serve to weigh you down. Do whatever you need to do to remove anger, spite, and resentment from your heart.

Remember that when Christ went to the cross for you, he also went for the person who hurt you. He took on his body every injustice known to man. He died for all humanity to live free, to choose him, and thereby choose freedom.

In 2011, make a choice that will clear the path you hope to forge ahead: Choose Forgiveness.

For further reading: Matt 6:14-15; Matt 18:21-35; Col 3:13

Recommended reading: Choosing Forgiveness: Your Journey to Freedom, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss