Free To ForgiveSample

Day 11

Requirement 4: Forgive the person for each trespass, offense, mistake, and wound.

Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. (Matt. 18:27)

You have opened your heart, extended compassion, and released them from your heart-prison. You are now ready to forgive them for the specific wounds they did to you.

As you do, the infection in your heart drains.

Matthew 18:35 reveals how we are to do this important step: “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” Did you see it? Jesus didn’t say to forgive the person, nor did He say to “forgive the trespass.” Instead, He opens our eyes to recognize the heavenly protocol—we must forgive each one of the “trespasses.”

That has been the unseen root of so many of our problems—we say “I forgive you,” instead of “I forgive you for the wound when you ______ (describe the wound).” Honesty and specificity is needed—looking at and naming each and every offense and then forgiving them one at a time. Leaving nothing out. Each wound is a different source of heart infection and unforgiveness. This is often why any previous attempts at forgiveness haven’t worked permanently. Though we may have meant the forgiveness we extended, we didn’t take the time to remove all the infection, consciously forgiving each and every wound.

Christ’s use of the plural, trespasses, cannot be missed. Our unforgiveness will not be fully completed until we choose to forgive each and every wound the person did.

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.