When our relationships are right, life is good especially when we can do what we want, when we want. But what happens when someone knowingly wrongs us and refuses to acknowledge or admit it. Our relationship with them is broken and our happiness leaves. So does our joy and peace. We want justice and refuse to be satisfied until we receive what we think we deserve. But justice seems to have lost her sense of balance. Her stumble disrupts our relationships.
Old hurts and pains surface, along with the memories and emotions associated with them. Instead of moving forward in victory, unresolved issues from the past unite with present hurts and shut us down emotionally. Until we unlock the mental prison where we incarcerate others and learn to release them through forgiveness, we are suspended in time and our relationships suffer.
Choosing to forgive someone who has betrayed, violated, abused or mistreated you is not easy to do, even if you are a Christian. Only when you choose to do what pleases God above what pleases you, will you be able to embrace the true concept of forgiveness.
What's the most awful thing someone has said or done to you? Does that event still hold you captive in the past? If so, are you willing to release the hurt, trust God to restore what the locusts have eaten, and regain an undivided soul to live in the present?
"You don't know what I have been through," you may say. It's true, I don't know what you've been through and I certainly don't want to minimize your hurt or pain. You may need professional help to resolve some painful issues in your past. Hopefully, at some point you will release the person who has hurt you in the past because you will then be free to move forward and enjoy your present.
Many people have in-law stories because of bad relationships. So do I. After choosing to forgive someone for all the anguish I endured in our relationship, I rejoiced when I heard, "Please come because I need you."
It is never easy to forgive someone who repeatedly causes you pain in your relationship. Years of unkind words and actions stoked my fires of anger and resentment. Even when I wanted to apply the words of Scripture to our relationship, one moment in the person's presence ignited my emotional embers to full blown flames.
This is only one of the many areas of forgiveness I have had to deal with in my life. This article is too short to share others. However we can take a quick look at Scripture for an example of how one person chose to handle those who had wronged him and refused to acknowledge or admit it.
Sibling rivalry can be very destructive at times. Genesis 37-50 tells the story of Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery because they were jealous of his relationship with their father.
Potiphar, Pharaoh's official, bought Joseph and entrusted everything, except his wife, to him. Joseph obviously was a good looking man who had a tight, muscular body because Potiphar's wife got the hots for him. When Joseph refused her advances, she claimed he raped her. Of course Joseph's relationship with Potiphar was broken after being falsely accused. Potiphar had no problem throwing him in prison.
While in prison, God was with Joseph and gave him favor. The warden put him in charge of all the prisoners. Two prisoners asked Joseph to interpret their dreams. He did. One was restored to his position of honor, the other was hanged. The restored prisoner promised to tell Pharaoh about Joseph, but he didn't.
When Pharaoh needed his dreams interpreted, the restored prisoner remembered Joseph. Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph that he exalted him to the number two position in Egypt.
