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One Friday over 2,000 years ago, the Son of God hung on a cross and pronounced…
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” – Luke 23:34)
And then, in regards to reign of sin and death, he proclaimed…
“It is finished!” – John 19:30
For over 2,000 years the church has celebrated the forgiveness Jesus requested of His Father on our behalf; and not merely the forgiveness He requested, but the forgiveness He purchased with His own precious blood.
Is today the day for you to say, “It is finished,” in regard to the bitterness you’ve clung to (or the bitterness which has clung to you) for far too long?
What about committing to take just one intentional step toward forgiving someone who has hurt you. What kind of step might you take?
It could be anything, but for starters, begin by asking the God who’s forgiven you to give you the ability, the desire, and the determination to forgive. And then ask Him to reveal to you one step you could take before the end of this week.
Jesus loves a prayer from the heart, but if you’d like a starting point, here’s a prayer you could begin with:
Heavenly Father,
I know you forgave me of all of my sins before I was born. You did it when Your Son paid for my sins on the cross – once and for all. Thank You, my God!
But O Lord, I do not know how to forgive. You know how badly I have been hurt. You were THERE when I was hurt, just like you were there when Jesus was secretly arrested, falsely accused, brutally tortured, and shamefully crucified. This is how I know that You know forgiveness is costly. It cost you the life of Your one and only Son.
Forgiveness is going to cost me too and I don’t think I can do it. I don’t know if I even really want to do it. But I am so tired of living in the pain of what has been done to me and what it keeps doing to me.
Will you give me the ability, the desire, and the determination to forgive? O God, I know You can do anything! Please answer this prayer by giving me – even right now, in this very moment – one step I can take toward forgiving. Then give me the courage to tell someone about that one step so they can pray for me, encourage me, and hold me accountable. Thank You, my God, for answering my prayer!
In Jesus name, Amen!
One Suggestion for that One Step
Do want to forgive?
We want to help you do just that!
Can we make it easy?
No. No one can do that.
In fact, apart from the love of a God who died for our forgiveness, it wouldn’t even be possible to forgive. We’d be trapped in the bondage of bitterness our whole lives. And then forever in eternity.
But while we can’t make it easy for you to forgive, we can make it simple.
We do that in a 70-page, 5-chapter E-book called Forgiveness 101. You can get your FREE PDF copy by emailing us here. OR skip to the bottom of this page and sign up for our e-newsletter.
If you prefer, you can get a taste from the book by reading part of the intro here…
2 Reasons You Need to Forgive
Is there a particular person with whom you simply don’t interact, someone you can’t stand, someone for whom the mere mention of their name stands the hair up on the back of your neck?
Did they hurt you?
Reject you?
Take advantage of you?
Ignore you?
Humiliate you?
Slander you?
Steal something from you?
Withhold something they owed you?
Betray you?
Do you think you’ll never be able to forgive them?
Well, what if I told you that if you can’t forgive them your chances of enjoying a healthy life-giving marriage drop precipitously? This is true for at least two reasons… [Read More]
We also cover the importance of forgiveness in the third book in our discipleship series, Beyond Sex & Salvation. Here’s just a brief snippet of a talk I shared on the campus of LeTourneau University which came from that book.
Is there anything else we can do to help you? Let us know! Send us an email and let us know how we can pray for you and we will! In fact, even though I don’t even know you, I’m praying for your victory over bitterness even now as I type these words.
The LoveEd discipleship series, Beyond Sex & Salvation, will empower you to prepare for relational success when it counts: BEFORE you fall in love!
It’s NOT for couples, but for any wise individual who thinks they might want to get married sometime before they die. And would like to learn how to better build healthy relationships in the meantime.
Check out all three study guides in our store. You can walk through them on your own, but it’s more fun with friends (that and it kinda makes sense to grow in relational success in actual relationships with others), so consider putting together an FMU LoveEd small group study.
Even better? And ask a rock star married couple you respect to lead it!