forgiving others Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Daily Thoughts about God

“But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid…. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good….’”
Genesis 50:19-20

Joseph had every reason to be bitter: his brothers had just sold him into slavery. One could argue that he had it coming: his dad played favourites and Joseph really rubbed it in with his older brothers.

After being sold, he ended up in Egypt. After working his way into a good position, he was thrown into prison for two years. Even though he became a powerful man in the end, many would say he had a right to hold a grudge against his family.

Somewhere through a lot of ups and downs in his life, Joseph learned the value of forgiveness. When his brothers came to him in a time a great need, Joseph chose to put his hurt and anger behind him and acknowledge that God had used every circumstance for good. Many lives were saved through events that had originally caused him great pain.

Forgiveness is something that can be misunderstood. From small irritations to major life-changing hurts, we all need to forgive. It’s a choice, and it’s also a process. Often a hurt must be dealt with before forgiveness can come.

Most of all, forgiveness is for us, not our offenders. It releases us to live in freedom and to learn from the hurts in our past. But it’s not for weaklings; it makes us stronger.

Lord, show me if I need to forgive. Deal with my hurt and guide me to set things right before You and others. Amen.

By Debbie West
Used by Permission

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“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3

It is easier to ignore our own shortcomings than it is to forgive others for theirs. Surely we we’d never act as wrong as they did, right? Lynette Hoy, LPC states, “But when we do something wrong or hurtful/disappointing we tend to excuse our own behavior by attributing external causes…. This is what psychologists call the “Fundamental Attribution Error.”

There’s an old saying: when you point a finger, three more point back to you. That is something to remember the next time you are tempted to not hold a grudge. We tend to think someone else’s offense is greater than anything we’d do. We’re trained to do that because our legal system measures a wrongdoing, and then assigns a penalty to fit the offense. Shoplifting doesn’t carry the same severity as a murdering an entire family.

Yet, in God’s eyes, sin is sin. No shades of gray. Paul states in Romans 3:23 we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Christ died on the cross because He knew humans are prone to mess up. Are we fooling ourselves into thinking we are really better than someone else? What excuses are we using to try and justify our behavior?

As Christians, we’re not to drag our brothers and sisters before God to be punished or examined under a holy microscope. We are to forgive them, just as Christ forgave all of us on the hard wood of the cross as He bled for us…and them, too. After all, we probably need forgiveness for something we have done or said, too.

Father, forgive me for my attribution error, in thinking my sins are less than someone else’s or trying to make excuses for them so they seem less somehow. Correct me when I come to you wanting you to punish someone who has hurt or angered me. Let me realize that I am flawed, human, and imperfect as well. Keep me humble, and open my heart to receive others despite their humanness. Amen.

By Julie Cosgrove
Used by Permission