Moving Forward in Forgivenessናሙና

Commit to Forgiveness

On your wedding day, you stand before God, family, and friends. You make a commitment to love, honor, and be there for one another no matter what life throws your way. You make a commitment in your happiest state. At that moment, it seems like your spouse could never disappoint you.

I don’t believe anyone goes into marriage with an intention to hurt their spouse or to divorce. Maybe your spouse has disappointed you in some way. Every marriage has some disappointments and hurts along the way. If you are not careful, you can hold unforgiveness in your heart.

Early on in our marriage, I learned we will have a lot of opportunities to extend forgiveness. 1 Peter 3:8 exhorts believers to have, “unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” This word-picture of life in God’s family, where each person is full of generous grace for one another, will bring more peace and joy to our relationships and especially to our marriage. We can choose to accept that our spouse and life aren’t perfect and commit to forgiveness, or we can hold on to unforgiveness that hinders us from moving forward. Either way, it will take a commitment.

In Matthew 18:21, Peter suggested that we might generously forgive another person as many as seven times. Jesus’ answer was surprising when he responded that we must forgive seventy times seven!

Our willingness to forgive should be like God’s forgiving grace, unlimited and free. Those who do not forgive in this way cannot themselves experience God’s forgiveness. For us to forgive like Jesus, we must be willing to commit to forgiveness everyday. We must allow God to break the barriers of our heart and make us more tenderhearted, so we can freely give forgiveness.

Challenge: Ask God to reveal any unforgiveness in your heart. Then commit to forgiveness daily.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

1. How committed are you to forgiveness?
2. How can you show forgiveness everyday in your marriage? Think about your words, tone of voice, actions, etc.
3. What barriers need to be broken down in your heart so you can freely forgive?
4. As you meditate on 1 Peter 3:8’s picture of grace: “unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” is there any quality here that you want to ask God to grow you in?