FORGIVENESS

The bible reveals to man God's unconditional plan of love expressed through His Son Jesus Christ.  God the Father freely gave to mankind a payment for sin through His Son.  God has revealed continually to mankind the He has unconditional promises.  God freely gives and He also freely forgives.  Every thing that we have in God we have because of Christ.  We are blessed by God through Christ, we praise God through Christ and we also have peace with God through Christ.  The work of Christ allows us to freely approach God.  As Christians Christ now lives inside of us through the ressurection, and Christ wants to live His life through us.  We as Christians have been given every blessing freely in Christ, and now God wants us to also feely give to others.  We are also called to freely forgive others.  Listen to what the apostle Paul writes.  Colossians 3:12-14 NASB (12) So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; (13) bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. (14) Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.  Notice in verse (13) Paul writes "forgiving each other...just as the Lord forgave you".  In Christ all of our sins are forgiven.  Through the shed blood of Christ we have forgiveness, it is the blood of Christ alone that brings forgiveness.  Just as all of my sins are freely forgiven through Christ, God wants me to do the same to my brothers and sisters.  There are deep hurts that we all have in our lives, some things that can only be dealt with through God's help.  Some hurts may take longer to work through than others.  We do have to realize that carrying unforgiveness will rob us of our lives.  Sometimes the wrongs that we have experienced by others are all we think about, we keep replaying that one act over and over and over and over, not realizing how much of our lives we are giving away.  The longer we carry unforgiveness the more of our life we give away.  Christ wants you to lighten your load, He wants you to let the hurts go so that you can live your life in Him and He can live His life through you.