A decade ago, I realized I had never forgiven a boy who ridiculed me - a new kid - outside our grade 8 classroom with all the other boys watching.
Compared to what others have faced, it seems trivial to me now. But it affected me for the rest of my high school days, causing me to withdraw from the other boys.
So, I decided to forgive him - and others - as part of a church study group on healing prayer. Nothing spectacular happened, but it was important for me to jettison this bitter burden.
Forgiveness is hard, but unforgiveness can be crippling. It can affect our spiritual lives and sometimes our physical and emotional lives.
Christ calls on us to forgive others, drawing a direct link between our relationship with God and our willingness to forgive (Matthew 6:14-15). Failure to forgive does not mean we are separated from God, but I believe it means we have ourselves created an obstacle in our relationship with the Lord.
I have read stories of dramatic healings - emotional and physical - when people have forgiven others. It can even transform families.
In her book When You Don't Know What To Pray, Linda Evans Shepherd tells how forgiveness brought a large family into the kingdom of God.
The family of 10 children suffered through violence and alcoholism as they grew up.
Then, one of them - Victoria - became a believer. The rest ignored her spiritual change and she died from cancer not too long afterwards. She deeply desired for the rest of her family to become followers of Christ.
A little later, one of her sisters - Marie - became a Christian and started praying for her parents and all of her brothers and sisters. While she was praying, she would recall hurts she had suffered at the hands of these family members.
"Each time that happened, Marie asked God to help her forgive that hurt," Shepherd writes.
This took years. As she prayed for each family member, she gradually forgave each for past hurts.
When she had finished this process, she invited the whole family to dinner at a restaurant. She was surprised when all of them came.
Then, she invited them all to come to a church meeting where the preacher presented the good news of Jesus Christ. All but one came that evening and committed their lives to Jesus.
Of course, there is no guarantee that forgiving someone will lead to such wonderful results.
But Jesus knew what he was talking about when he urged us to forgive.
When we forgive others, we are doing what God has done for us.
Compared to what others have faced, it seems trivial to me now. But it affected me for the rest of my high school days, causing me to withdraw from the other boys.
So, I decided to forgive him - and others - as part of a church study group on healing prayer. Nothing spectacular happened, but it was important for me to jettison this bitter burden.
Forgiveness is hard, but unforgiveness can be crippling. It can affect our spiritual lives and sometimes our physical and emotional lives.
Christ calls on us to forgive others, drawing a direct link between our relationship with God and our willingness to forgive (Matthew 6:14-15). Failure to forgive does not mean we are separated from God, but I believe it means we have ourselves created an obstacle in our relationship with the Lord.
I have read stories of dramatic healings - emotional and physical - when people have forgiven others. It can even transform families.
In her book When You Don't Know What To Pray, Linda Evans Shepherd tells how forgiveness brought a large family into the kingdom of God.
The family of 10 children suffered through violence and alcoholism as they grew up.
Then, one of them - Victoria - became a believer. The rest ignored her spiritual change and she died from cancer not too long afterwards. She deeply desired for the rest of her family to become followers of Christ.
A little later, one of her sisters - Marie - became a Christian and started praying for her parents and all of her brothers and sisters. While she was praying, she would recall hurts she had suffered at the hands of these family members.
"Each time that happened, Marie asked God to help her forgive that hurt," Shepherd writes.
This took years. As she prayed for each family member, she gradually forgave each for past hurts.
When she had finished this process, she invited the whole family to dinner at a restaurant. She was surprised when all of them came.
Then, she invited them all to come to a church meeting where the preacher presented the good news of Jesus Christ. All but one came that evening and committed their lives to Jesus.
Of course, there is no guarantee that forgiving someone will lead to such wonderful results.
But Jesus knew what he was talking about when he urged us to forgive.
When we forgive others, we are doing what God has done for us.
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