Empower Yourself to Forgive
“I’ve [ ] learned that though we can’t manipulate forgiveness, we can work toward it. How? By admitting and feeling our pain while asking God to help us forgive. God offers us the gift of forgiveness. We need to open our hearts and receive it. But because we have been hurt so severely, we often don’t activate forgiveness in our relationships. Instead, we close up to protect ourselves, and we can’t receive the gift even when it’s in front of our faces. This is true whether the gift is receiving forgiveness or offering forgiveness.
The key to a lifestyle of forgiveness, I’ve found, is first making the commitment to love our world. We can walk in forgiveness toward others and ourselves only if we’ve first committed to love. Unforgiveness blocks our ability to love; we will be motivated to be a forgiving person only if we’ve first decided to be a loving person.”
Excerpted from Forgive One Another by Gloria Chrisholm
Daily Reflection: Will this be a year of loving and forgiving? What can you do to make keep this resolution?