Let’s Talk About Forgiveness

Ron:

Hello everyone, I am Ron your host and, on this podcast, we will be talking about one of the greatest principles of God’s Kingdom, Forgiveness. Let’s open our hearts to receive the impartation of this beautiful gift so we can truly forgive one another from the heart.

Dale:

There is forgiveness and there is being forgiven. We had something in the news a few years ago that I think was earth-shaking. A guy went into an Amish Church school and shot the place up. There were a lot of kids killed and within a couple weeks of that tragedy the families, that church, and that school issued the statement. They said we forgive that man who did it. That wasn’t politics the Amish people are not politicians. They weren’t trying to do something to add a feather to their cap, they were trying to do something out of their love for the Lord and out of their love for that man, and out of the love that they wanted to participate in changing this world. How many of the times do you read in the news, justice we have got to get justice for that person. You want justice for that person, forgive them. What I am saying is that the forgiveness if it is going to be effective, is going to come because you realize that Christ gave His life for you. And that’s where forgiveness begins. Usually, you forgive somebody it’s getting it off your chest. I don’t want to be mad at you. I don’t want to be angry. I love our relationship. I don’t want to lose that. So, I am going to yield and I am going to forgive you. I am going to become reticent, false humility, I forgive you. That’s not what Christ did.

Ron:

There is a feeling with forgiveness. When someone comes up to you and ask you for your forgiveness. Usually, you can sense when they are asking you where are they coming from. Are they really repentant in their hearts or are they just trying smooth over the relationship? I mean there is a difference in feeling in that and it doesn’t take too much discernment to be able to see that.

Dale:

If a guy took advantage of me and money-wise and hurt me financially, hurt me emotionally. I have to look at what he did not against me but against God. See that’s the truth that Christ realized. Now, if I go to forgive somebody I can’t do it with an arrogance or anything other than I realize that I am going in the name of the Lord and saying, I forgive you. My forgiveness opens the door for him. God has stirred my heart. The center of forgiveness and being forgiven is about God. The two people involved both no matter which way it flows both people are going to profit from letting God be the one.

Ron:

You have been forgiven by the Lord much. You know what forgiveness means and you know how it feels. You’ve had an experience that’s been written on your heart to know the depth of forgiveness because I think if I know the depth of forgiveness then I will also be a really good forgiver.

Dale:

That’s absolutely right. If you could go talk to those parents of those Amish children, to the brothers and sisters and the very tight-knit people that they are. They went through a lot to be able to say, I forgive you. That’s the experience you're talking about and to forgive somebody it breaks your heart. There has to be a broken spirit, contrite heart. God will deal with you and what He is doing is He’s cleaning out any offense that you had. You can’t forgive somebody without a right spirit in you because then the forgiveness is tainted. The times we are living in there is no political solution. There’s no financial solution. The only solution is to forgive.

Ron

On a human level forgiveness doesn’t really exists. I mean true forgiveness. People say they forgive one another but it is not effective it doesn’t change the heart of either one of them. So, there is no answer in human relationships except for if you bring God into the situation. In other words, it’s a relationship with God because that is where all forgiveness, true forgiveness is.

Dale:

And true forgiveness you can’t earn. It has to come from the Father. We can all be agents of grace and we can all be agent’s forgiveness and we can all be recipients of grace and we can all be recipients of forgiveness. The beautiful thing is it all goes back to the Father, what kind of God He is. How do I forgive, I can only forgive if I was first forgiven? And Christ did that on the cross when He died for my sins. He died and I was forgiven. So, I can pass that along. I think that’s a major step for Christianity to tear down the walls of division, forgive one another bury all the differences and let God’s grace bear fruit in all of us.

Ron:

When you said that I was just thinking myself, what unbelievable arrogance a believer carries when he cannot forgive his fellow believer because that fellow believer thinks different, believes different that is got to be an affront to the Father. If Christ did what He did. You know went to the cross after everything He went through. How in the world are we still retaining in our hearts unforgiveness for the little things or maybe even the big things that we experienced? He forgave and He is expecting you to forgive your fellow man and of course, we just already talked about this are you going to do that? In reality, you can’t.

Dale:

Your talking about Christ forgave our sins. You know how and why. In the very simple thing Christ died for our sins, that’s why He can forgive us. There is that element that we die so we can forgive.

Ron:

Lets each one of us daily reach into the heart of our Father to receive from Him the ability to truly forgive each other from our hearts.