Healing the Heart and Mind - Forgiveness

We all have had a wounded heart or mental anguish due to hurts in our relationships whether it be family, friends, co-workers, classmates or strangers.

God offers us a path towards mending those wounds so we can experience wholeness again.

Our scripture for this path is Colossians 3:13,
"Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

Forgiveness is the key. Without it, we hold onto grudges, anger, pain, and bad memories. Forgiving releases those chains which hold us back from moving forward and possessing peace.

The one who offended us, hurt us, damaged us, has most likely moved on with their life unaffected or even unaware of what they did. Why should we allow ourselves to remain burdened in chains of pain when they are not?

We often hold on to that pain because we feel that if we forgive, we are saying that it is okay what that individual did. But that isn't the case with forgiveness. We can forgive without saying what they did was okay. We can continue to keep our distance from that person.

But we can no longer harbor anger and hurt when we forgive. Apostle Paul teaches in Ephesians 4:26, “Be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.”

When we hold onto anger and don't forgive, that is a sin in itself. We read in James 5:15,
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."

James urged the people to pray for each other’s sins so they may be healed. As long as we harbor grudges, we cannot be healed of our wounded heart and mental anguish.

James continues to tell us in verse 15 that our prayer is "powerful and effective", meaning that when we ask God to help us to forgive and let go, He will give us the strength to do so and he will heal us of our pain.

When we find it challenging to forgive, we can turn to the word of God and see the power of God's forgiveness for our own transgressions.

Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

And we read in Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

We have a very merciful Father. He forgives us and removes our sin. We can run east forever and never reach west. And we can run west forever and not reach east. Forgiving others can have the same effect on our pain. Once we have forgiven, that pain is also as far as the east is from the west. We are free when we forgive and let go. That's the blessed result of forgiveness.

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