Inspire Me!
By Pam Best
You intended to harm me, but God intended it
for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20
Joseph squarely faced up to the evil his
brothers had done. He did not minimize or excuse it. Many people today mistakenly think
that forgiveness means to overlook the evils done against them. Actually this is an
unreality which keeps out the power of grace.
My Interpretation:
After reading this thought by David A. Seamands, the nature of forgiveness seems much
clearer to me. We find it difficult to overlook the things that people do that hurt us.
Whether the "evil" done against us is intentional or unintentional, the damage
is still done. We are still hurt and disappointed. Oftentimes, even in our desire to
forgive and forget, we still harbor bad feelings. We try to look past the indiscretion,
but it still stands unmoved and un-dealt-with in our peripheral vision. Because of this,
we feel like we have a problem forgiving, but that's not the case. Our problem is that we
don't know what forgiveness is. All of this time, we have been trying to do what is
impossible: Overlook every offense acted against us. Pretend as though the offense and its
impact never happend or doesn't matter. This is clearly not the case. If the action didn't
matter, forgiveness wouldn't be needed. Forgiveness is the act of looking at the offense;
facing it and the person who has committed it, dealing with the repercussions, and
resolving to let it go by the exercising the power of grace. Grace says, "OK, this
has happened and it cannot be changed. I understand you as another human being are capable
of making mistakes and I give you or extend to you mercy and I place that covering of
mercy in front of your offense." Think of it like this foreground is the area of
space in front. In front of what? Well it is relative to the background, which is the area
of space in the back. In english, that means the foreground is what's in front of the
background. Forgiving is the act of giving before or in front of. It is extending grace
and mercy and placing them in front of the offense. This is the same way that Jesus places
His blood over us and in front of us so that when the Father looks at us, He sees what
Jesus gave, not what we did. By the same token, when we put mercy and grace in front of
the evils committed against us, we see what Jesus has done through us with mercy and grace
and not t!
he evil done to us. It's not about denying what has happened, but dealing with it and
letting it go through the power of grace. This is how we truly take on the character of
Christ.
Opionions are those of the author
- not necessarily those of TopBlacks
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