God's Command - To Forgive Others

Good Evening to All!

The Enemy specializes in taking advantage of any refusal to forgive. Ask God if you are in any way perpetuating division.

Now to be completely truthful, I don't quite understand what she is saying in that last sentence.

I do know how ever, that according to God's Word, God will not forgive those who will not forgive others. That is spoken in Matthew 6:14 and 15: (14) For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: (15) But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Lord, You tell me to forgive others in the sight of Christ in order that Satan might not outwit me. Help me never to be unaware of his schemes (2 Cor. 2:11). Please help me to see how much the enemy takes advantage of unforgiveness. I offer him a foothold any time I refuse to forgive.

Lord, my conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is You who judges me. Therefore, I am to judge nothing before the appointed time; Your Word tells me to wait until You come. You will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God (1 Cor. 4:4-5)

Taken from Beth Moore's "Praying God's Word Day by Day"
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Have you ever gotten upset with someone about something and just wanted to "stew" for a little while? I have. The problem with that is, the "little while" turned in to a long while. Not only that, but the only person I hurt was myself. I originally started out telling myself, "I better not say anything right now. I may regret it later. The next thing I know hours turned into days, days into weeks, months for 2 years. I didn't want to talk to her. The problem was the longer I held onto the grudge, the easier it was to "not talk to her". Satan was always there telling me excuses of why I should stay upset, reminding me over and over again why I got upset in the first place. It ate me up inside. This went on for two years. Finally, I was awakened by someone (I don't even remember who it was) making the statement, "you know God won't forgive you if you don't forgive others". I don't remember who we were talking about, or who I was talking to, but this stuck with me. I wasn't even in a relationship with God yet. I knew He existed, and I cried out to Him when I needed something, but I was nowhere near as close to Him as I am now. This statement REALLY convicted me. I got in touch with this person and told them about the whole ordeal. What was even worse is that they didn't even know I had been angry with them. Anytime they had called, I had made some excuse not to talk to them. I never wrote letters anyway, so like I said the only person hurt in this situation was me. Anyway, I explained why I had gotten upset, and asked for forgiveness. Come to find out, I had been angry for no reason because the situation wasn't even their fault! I had wasted 2 precious years of my life being angry and upset for NO REASON.

This is what the devil wants to keep going. He loves destroying lives, creating turmoil and chaos. Most of all He knows that God will not forgive those who won't forgive others, so that gives him a better shot at taking them to Hades with him.

I would love to sit here and place the image of a "red being with horns, a tail and
a pitchfork, and tell you it's all his fault. The fact is, it isn't. ( They had some really scary looking pictures of caricatures of the devil, but I didn't want to give "him" the satisfaction of making him scarier than our minds already do. We just must remember that God is much stronger than he is. After all he was originally one of God's angels until he got too prideful. Yes, Satan is an instigator and he will keep bringing "stuff" up in your thoughts, but YOU have the power to push those thoughts out of your mind and tell yourself you don't want to be angry anymore. The devil doesn't have unstoppable power over you. You are the one (I should say we) who give him power over us. We are the ones who allow him to steadily put these thoughts in our minds. The way to keep him out is to stay in the Word. Think upon things that are pure, honest, lovely and of good report. Think about how nice it will be when all angry or hurt feelings are washed away with forgiveness.

Please, if you have had a disagreement with someone, and are harboring angry or hurt feelings toward another person, please call them and ask for forgiveness, even if they are in the wrong. More chance than not, if you ask for forgiveness, they will also. Not only that, you will be helping them to keep Satan off their back as well as your own.

In case you are wondering about the relationship between the pictures, of course the banner speaks for itself, but the picture of the man is finding it hard to forgive because "it hurts so much". Believe me, I cannot see how ANYTHING could hurt as much as what "we" as the human race did to Christ. It was bad enough that they wouldn't acknowledge Him for who He was, but to ridicule and then crucify Him. What He endured for us is unfathomable and yet He did it because He loves us.


Good Night and May God Bless!