But Also, FORGIVE
Written By: Jenni Erickson
Last year, one of the biggest lessons I learned was about forgiveness. After holding onto anger and hurt from a friendship, I finally turned it over to God and took the next steps toward forgiveness.
I had a friendship that had been established in the awkward years of middle school, had survived the dramas of high school, and endured several rough patches after that. But last year was the roughest of patches. I hadn’t heard from her in a few months. With COVID restrictions, busy lives, changing jobs, and conflicting schedules, that was almost to be expected. Out of the blue, I found out that she had moved away to another state with a boyfriend I had never met. I was hurt. I felt left out. I felt cast aside. Then (without going into specific details) I got another text from her a few weeks later. This text left me feeling angry. I felt irritable. I felt resentment.
I held onto these feelings for weeks. I did not turn to God. I did not want to read any verses on forgiving others.
After holding onto these feelings for far too long, I broke down and prayed for my OWN forgiveness. It took these rough weeks of feeding a grudge for me to understand how God felt whenever I did something that disappointed him. How many times have I “left him out of the loop”? How many times have I told him, “I’ll keep in touch” and then not speak with him for days? If God held onto grudges, I would be doomed.
Psalm 130: 3-4, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you, there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”
Before this had happened, I considered myself to be a fairly forgiving person. However, after going through something like this, my perspective on forgiveness had changed drastically. It was hard to forgive this person. I held onto the anger and bitterness for longer than I should have. As soon as I brought this hurt, pain, and anger to God, He took it away from me. I gained a clearer view of just how powerful God’s forgiveness towards us is.
Colossians 3:12-13, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
My friend and I are not as close as we used to be. I no longer think of the hurt I felt, but rather the reminder of God’s forgiveness.
Do you have a friend that hurt you?
Have you been that friend who hurt someone else?
What is stopping you from forgiving someone?
How have you felt God’s unconditional forgiveness?
