Day 2 - Forgive God & Others!

When Father's Day comes around most fatherless individuals are reminded of how we have nothing to celebrate.  The advertisements are everywhere.  Celebrate your dad!  Buy your dad this or give your dad that.  But being fatherless we do not have a dad to buy gifts for.  We do not have a dad to make a meal for or to take out to eat.  We do not have a dad to make a card for or to write in a card for.  We do not have a dad to tell how much we love and are thankful for him.  This is hard.  There is no way around it.  

To many people, Father's Day is an annual reminder of rejection and sadness.  Often these feelings can lead to bitterness.  It could be bitterness towards our dad if he chose to leave or made a choice that forced him to be out of our lives.  It could lead to bitterness towards our mom or someone that we think caused our dad to leave or to never be around at all.  It could lead to bitterness towards ourselves blaming ourselves because we think that it was in some way our fault that our dad is not in our lives.  It could lead to bitterness towards God because we think it is His fault for taking our dad away.  

None of these choices of bitterness are healthy for us!  Regardless of what feelings of bitterness you might have, today is the day to let them go!  Give these feelings of bitterness to God.  When we choose to have bitterness in our lives it is like choosing to have a disease like leprosy.  Leprosy eats at the bodies of its victims.  The same goes for bitterness it just eats at our lives.  

I want to encourage you to forgive whoever it is that you are bitter at!  Forgive your dad!  Forgive others!  Forgive yourself!  Forgive God!

Ephesians 4:31-32 gives us guidance on how and why we should forgive: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." 

Maybe you are thinking something like, "but you don't understand Sean, you don't know how hard it has been!  I am sure it has been very hard.  I had a hard time forgiving my birth dad too, but through God, I was able to!  You can forgive as well!

A PLAN FOR FORGIVENESS:

1.  UNDERSTAND HOW TO FORGIVE?

In these verses from Ephesians 4, it is telling us that the best way for us to live is to forgive!  How do we do this?  We choose to forgive!  We pray and ask God to forgive us for being bitter at Him, for being bitter at ourselves, or for being bitter at other people.  We also pray and ask God to help us forgive and to help us live in a continual mindset of forgiveness.  

If the opportunity arises you can also go to your dad or the person you have been bitter at and tell them that you forgive them.  But start with going to God about it and let Him lead you on what you should do!

2.  UNDERSTAND WHY TO FORGIVE?

Because God has forgiven us through our faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus died a horrible death on the cross and was dead for three days until He rose again so that we could be forgiven!  If God can forgive us through Christ for all of the sins that we have committed against Him, then we should be able to forgive others, we should be able to forgive ourselves, and we definitely should be able to forgive God!  

ACTION STEPS:

1. If you have not made the decision that we talked about in Day One, to have God as your Dad through Jesus, what are you waiting for?  That is the first step to experiencing forgiveness in your life!  God back and make that decision today!
2. If God is your Dad spend time in prayer with Him asking Him to search your heart for any bitterness that you may have in your life.  Ask Him for forgiveness for any bitterness in your life and ask Him to guide you in forgiving Him, in forgiving yourself, and in forgiving others!
3. Write out and memorize Ephesians 4:31-32 to quote when Satan tempts you to be bitter!