Set Me Free

The first prayer I learnt was the Lord’s Prayer that emphasized that we have to forgive in order for our Heavenly Father to also forgive us of our sins (Matt. 6: 9-15)


Of course I had no clue what that meant at the time but through memorization and practice, the words sank into my brain.  Now what good is it to repeat the words of a model prayer without fully understanding its meaning?  There are many principles that we tend to learn, good or bad but there is no suggested purpose or conceived meaning thus making them really impractical.  Forgiveness is one such notion that is imprinted on our minds but so difficult to be executed because there is no basis for it to be valued.

As a child, I was told to apologize, saying the words ‘I’m Sorry’ when I have done someone wrong but come to think of it now, is an apology also an act of forgiveness?  I highly doubt that because I can recall repeating those words and still be clinging to feelings of anger towards someone despite who was in the wrong/right.  But as always we are expected to do the right thing irrespective of how we deal with our feelings.  It’s not until my adult years that I finally realized that what we say have to match up with what we feel in our hearts.  On numerous occasions I have forced myself to believe that I have forgiven certain individuals especially my husband but later found out that my feelings towards him are so singing a different tune.

When we fail to totally forgive, feelings of unforgiveness such as bitterness and resentment set in.  Our hearts become molded with grief that eventually it hardens by layers and layers of unforgiveness.  Despite the discomfort felt, there are painful memories and an embedded list of offenses that prevents you from really letting go, forgetting, and moving forward in your life.  Since there was no value placed on the act of forgiveness during our formative years (0-7), then we devise our own interpretation which is of course self-centered and superficial.  What do you do when your spouse continuously does/says things to offend you?  We quickly harbor feelings of unforgiveness because we believe that forgiveness is enabling them.

However, if we had developed a foundational basis for forgiveness we would know that forgiving an offender is actually releasing oneself from the bondages of unforgiveness; setting you free instead of believing that you are allowing your offender to become repetitive in his/her actions.  The choice to forgive isn’t about your offender but yours for the taking. 

Seek peace, cleanse your heart of all the debris and let go of all bad memories without looking back in the past; move forward and develop a readiness in your heart to always forgive.