Free To ForgiveSample

Day 6

How could we imagine forgiving others seventy times seven times—a seemingly infinite number? Because we don’t want the Father to discipline us by turning us over to the torturers until we do.

There are always real and painful consequences to our unforgiveness. If we think our unforgiveness can be pushed down, hidden, stored away without effect, we are terribly wrong. Its presence delivers us to suffering. And it will never be broken until our hearts open in genuine and complete forgiveness.

When we fail to forgive others and ourselves, God takes away the protection of His peace in our hearts. The implications of that vary widely depending on our circumstances, but are always negative.

He does that because He loves us and wants our good more than He wants our comfort.

Many people resist the idea of God making a link between the sin of unforgiveness and our suffering. After all, how could a loving Father allow torment for His beloved children?

First, this is an issue of discipline, not punishment. He is teaching us, even if it initially seems harsh, that our suffering arises from our unforgiveness. He is doing this to motivate and train us to be like Him—a forgiver!

Second, He has provided a path of escape from all torment caused by our unforgiveness. Unlike punishment, which only ends when the punisher decides that you have suffered enough, the suffering brought by our unforgiveness can end immediately—as soon as we, the “unforgiver,” have learned to model our character after God’s forgiving nature, releasing all of the trespasses of others from our hearts.

Jesus’ parable shows that the issue of forgiveness is not what another person did to you, but what God will do to you if you don’t forgive them. The choice to be disciplined or not to be disciplined is ours to make, all based upon whether we are willing to turn and offer others the radical love and forgiveness that our King has offered to us.

This is God’s radical revelation—forgive others, so you won’t have to undergo painful discipline. Forgive others and yourself so you can live in freedom, joy, and peace.

God does not desire to make us suffer, nor does He take pleasure in watching us suffer. Quite the opposite. It pains Him too. But from His love for us, He is willing to place us into the hands of torturers—not because He wants us to suffer, but because He wants us to forgive.

This is an excerpt from The Freedom Factor: Finding Peace by Forgiving Others… and Yourself, by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson with Mark E. Strong. Used by permission.