"Forgiveness"

She was upset and angry with the preacher. She felt he had abandoned her and sided with her husband and his ungodly ways. As time passed, the more angry she grew and the more she felt people were siding with the preacher. Here she was, attending each assembly, working hard to make ends meet while her husband, soon to be ex, was being treated like a king by many of the Christians. At least that was her view! The lady continually spoke to others about how wrong things were with the preacher and others who supported her husband. What she never realized is the preacher and others were not siding with her husband but working to save his soul. She wasn't interested in that, just wanting her husband to pay for what he had done and anyone who tried to help she was against. Each passing day she was fading into a world of hate and an unforgiving heart.

Maybe you know of someone like this or you have practiced the very thing. What fails to touch the heart is how hate contaminates the heart and blinds the mind from seeing the true light of things. Everything decided and looked at is done through sinful eyes and hearts and not through the eyes of Jesus. Life continues on a downward spiral and it completely escapes notice that without a forgiving heart, there is no forgiveness offered. I know things hurt and we sometimes feel slighted but how we are hurt and slighted is not the issue. The issue is Jesus! The issue is always Jesus! It was Jesus who said unless we having a forgiving heart, there is no forgiveness from Him to us! Many times people just don't believe that. They leave a congregation upset, holding to bitterness's and resentments thinking they are completely in the right to feel the way they feel. They feel justified and spiritually superior because of the way they were treated and they think they know better. All the while Jesus fades into the background while faith is slowly lost. It is a sad scene yet it happens more often than one thinks. It seems some are trying to find a justified reason for bad things in their lives while all the while they journey toward a complete separation from Jesus. And that's not His choice for them but their choice for themselves. The face of non-forgiveness continues to spread their disgust for certain others, not willing to budge in their attitude, harboring hatred and cherishing grudges which means there is NO forgiveness from Jesus unless repentance takes place first. Heaven will be filled with the forgiven and the forgiven forgive! We have the Lord's word on that.