Forgiveness

Yikes...that's a tough one! I'm going through a study right now called The Fitting Room by Kelly Minter, and forgiveness happens to be the chapter I'm on. This book is written around Colossians 3:12 ~ Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. The author writes, 'I've always had plenty of these virtues till the moment I need them', and oh how true that is for me as well. It's easy for me to walk a friend through trusting God in the midst of difficult circumstances, or forgiving someone who hurt them, or having compassion on someone who just doesn't have a filter, but the moment I need to put those virtues into practice I become a novice! Knowing and doing are quite different!

So...forgiveness. After reading this chapter, I've been enlightened on a few things. Humbling.

First - we are often unwilling to forgive others because we have not accepted the forgiveness of Christ for ourselves, and the first cannot take place before the second.

Next - when we don't like something about someone else and are quick to judge them for it or whine to others about it, sometimes it's because we possess that same quality. We despise it in ourselves but have not received the forgiveness of Christ yet for that quality in ourselves.

Also - when we fixate on the trespass of another person, it's often because we are feeling guilty about something in our own life.

I've had to do some deep soul-searching and praying. As always, He's faithful to show me what I need to move forward in my journey. I asked and received, I sought and found, I knocked and the door has been opened. Now I have the choice to tackle it on my own or to surrender it to Him and allow Him to turn it into something beautiful.

I want beauty for ashes.

I really do.