The Treasure of Forgiveness

By Alexandra Copeland

Our Heavenly Father is a God of purpose. He doesn’t tell us to do things in His Word just for the sake of doing them. He desires that we get the absolute most out of our lives, that we squeeze every drop of happiness we possibly can from it. He created life, and He created us, so He knows exactly what we should be doing and how we should be doing it to maximize this earth experience. In Ephesians 2:10, He tells us that we’re His masterpieces; we’re His best work. He created us to be just like His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we can enjoy all the good things that He’s planned for us. John 14:6 tells us that Jesus Christ is the way. He makes it possible to milk this existence of all it’s good stuff so that we can keep God’s love flowing from faith to faith; from one good thing to the next.  

For the Christian, God’s love expressed through the example of Jesus Christ must be the most important thing in our lives. It must be our foundation. Some of us have a really tough time expressing God’s love because we have some junk in our trunks. There are things we’re holding on to in our hearts, and these things are blockers. What do I mean by blockers? Blockers are internal issues of darkness like anger, rage, addiction, phobias, and resentment that we have consciously or unconsciously refused to confront. Plain ol’ common sense tells us that a person can’t conquer something that they won’t confront. When it comes to the internal stuff that holds us back and keeps us moving at a snail’s pace to deliverance and wholeness, we must rally the courage to stare it in the face, so that we can run our race; and so that fear doesn’t get to call the shots.  

Blockers exist in our souls, and they block our blessings. Sometimes we experience pain or deeply hurtful situations in life, and we immediately go in self-preservation mode. We put up barriers, but we have to recognize that the same barriers that keep the hurt out, will keep God’s love out as well. We think we’re helping ourselves by not allowing anything in, but this isn’t what God means when He tells us to guard our hearts. He wants us to put on His Word. He wants us to get so filled up on His Word that we breath out His love 24/7. When our hearts are consumed with God’s love in this way, He will take care of the protection part. Our job is to make sure that we’re actively walking in the love of God day in and day out. 

Out of the all the blockers, the one that keeps God’s love at bay and causes us the most harm is resentment or an unforgiving heart. In Matthew 6, Jesus Christ taught the disciples about how to pray, and part of his template for praying effectively is to ask for God’s forgiveness, as we forgive those that have injured or trespassed against us. Jesus drew a roadmap which demonstrates the way to keep blessings flowing. It is to clear the way by getting rid of resentment against others. An earnest prayer of forgiveness is a treasure in our relationship with Heavenly Father. It pleases Him because it allows His forgiveness and the flow of blessings to pass through, but when we’re holding grudges and keeping anger bottled up, the vehicle of our faith in Christ becomes stuck in traffic.

We’re not perfect. We’re going to make mistakes. God doesn’t want us in self-condemnation about resentment, because that makes it worse. When we’re in self-condemnation, we become stuck in neutral, paralyzed by a selfish need to lick our wounds. God wants us moving forward and past all of that. He wants us to work towards getting rid of an unforgiving heart. One of the major reasons why we have to let this negative stuff go is because it grieves the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us. Ephesians 4:30-32 (NLT) says, “30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” 

The enemy wants to keep us in our mess. That’s just the truth of it. Because when we’re angry, upset, and holding a grudge against someone that has wronged us, the devil can keep pulling us down by the gravity of our own willingness to play his way. In 2Corinthians 2, the Apostle Paul schooled us on forgiveness. In verses 10-11, he said, “And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.”  We can see very clearly that the danger in not emptying our hearts of resentment is that the enemy has the legal right to use it against us; he can and will use it to outsmart us and block our blessings.  

God has given us a remedy for this in James 4:6-10 (NLT). This passage tells us, “As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.” There ought to be a Godly sorrow felt deeply in our hearts for the resentment and anger that we’ve carried, because we’ve allowed it to interfere with our relationship with God. It has grieved the Holy Spirit and caused broken fellowship. God tells us to get rid of it by coming closer to Him. He tells us to resist the devil, and then we are to humble ourselves before the Lord. By putting His love first, we can freely forgive others. He will then lift us up out of the muck and mire of resentment, where we can be confident that He has forgiven us.■ 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.