I made a blog a lil while ago about Forgiveness and whether we honestly forgive of which I came to the conclusion of yes and no. This blog isn't going to contradict that one nor event talk about similar situations. The reason this is being written is because there is a couple situations in my life where either me or someone close to me and yearning to forgive someone for a wrong they did to them. Da' T.R.U.T.H. made a song called Forgiveness and I'm going to use specific parts of his song to shape my thoughts.
(Chorus):
They say forgiveness is a choice
Disappointment and anger gives bitterness a voice
But I gotta swallow my pride and follow my God
Til I’m finished this course
The chorus to this song brings up the old wise tale that forgiving someone is totally up to the person that's wronged. Well, I'm here as well as the Bible is here to tell you that that is a common fallacy. We do not have a choice to forgive, rather it is something that is required of us. To be able to legit forgive someone is admitting that you are no better than they and even more important, you are not greater than God. Why do I say that? Yes, you've been wronged, and hopefully the person acknowledges that, but even if they don't, holding on to the grudge is saying that all the wrongs youve done to other people phathom in comparison to what that person did. And maybe in reality it does, but we are all humans and you NEVER know how much of your actions hurt others. Furthermore, God forgives us for stuff we do ALL the time. Jesus forgave those (aka us) that crucified him. Our job as a Christian is to follow Jesus, right? Then we have to forgive or else we aren't doing our jobs.
The 2nd Verse says (in part):
God knows what you’ve been through; He’s intune
But forgiveness is the healing for them wounds
So you gotta let it go, let it go
it’ll kill you if you let it grow
unforgiveness is a poison
I love the line, "unforgiveness is a poison" because it really is. Once again I will reiterate, yes you've been wronged, but until you are able to forgive that "wrong" you faced will continue to haunt you. You will never be able to get over what he/she did to you and most likely you will reflect that anger/hate on someone else and in the end, hurt future relationships. How do I know? Just ask me at a later time. As the T.R.U.T.H. said, "forgiveness is the healing for them wounds."
The third verse says (in part)
Love your enemies is part of growing up
Wanna hold a grudge, I know its tough
But if Joseph the dreamer forgave his older bruh
And Christ forgives for all our sins
And likes to give life tho we aint go no right to live
My FAVORITE line in here is "love your enemies is part of growing up." Not everyone is going to like to hear this (including myself), but holding grudges is a childish act. Growing up and maturing is a process that in part opens your eyes to realize that we are all the same; we are all humans and we are all sinners. And just by that categorization, we are ALL going to mess up. The quicker you realize that, the quicker you need to forgive. Besides, if it wasn't for Christ forgiveness, we all be dead right now.
