Forgiveness

It is so hard to forgive, due to pride. We let our pride get into the way. thinking wow..they did this thing that was so bad to me. It is hard to get out of that box and be like...Christ endured so much more and he still forgave.

Why it\'s hard to forgive

I think some of the reasons forgiving is hard are because the memories are still there, and it\'s in the past and it\'s unchangeable. You or another person has already messed up, and you can\'t go back and fix it, and you can\'t forget about at as far as wiping it from your memory. So sometimes people just want to hold onto that bitterness and those memories, either thinking that they\'ll be able to get the person back someday, or they just don\'t feel like letting it go, or they just think it\'s easier to hold onto them. I guess bitterness and unforgiveness is the easy way to deal with it (or rather, not deal with it). It\'s easier to get mad than to be loving.

forgiveness

There area several factors that contribute to why it is so hard to forgive. One is that we associate forgiveness with forgetting... we use the phrase forgive and forget, we even say sometimes that forgiving IS forgetting. However, God never told us that forgiving is forgetting, and He doesn\'t ask us to forget as He knows it is literally impossible to... He created us that way.
Another reason it is so hard to forgive is because the person you are forgiving might not necessarily be asking for forgiveness, or they might not even think that they did anything wrong. It is so hard to go beyond yourself and forgive someone anyway.
We all have memories. Mannerisms and moments bring them back to us. Sometimes our memories of someone are aweful and we remember how we were wronged all over again. In those moments it is very important to forgive again. This is for our own sakes, so we don\'t build up a wall of bitterness within ourselves which hurts our relationship with the person we can\'t forgive, then stems out and hurts other people connected to you or them in a certain way, and most importantly hurts your relationship with our all-loving God who harbors no bitterness and wants the same for us.

Why is it hard to forgive?

It always seems easier to say I\'ve forgiven someone, but it\'s hard to truly forgive. Why is that? For me, I think it comes down to whether I trust God or not. If I really trusted that God was in control, I think I would be more able to forgive.

But I want them to pay for what they did to me. I don\'t really think God knows what He\'s doing. I like to say things like, \"I forgive them BUT...\" which isn\'t really forgiveness. Real forgiveness is, \"I forgive you, and I\'m going to let God decide what consequences are appropriate.\"

What is it so hard to forgive?

Hey everybody I would love to hear your thoughts and reaction to this question of, \"Why is it so hard to forgive?\" I am speaking on this on Sunday April 26th and I would love to use your posts as part of the message.