Forgiveness might seem hard to do, but doing so is freeing and peaceful, like a refreshing breeze. For Christians, forgiving others might be easy, but not forgiving ourselves. And sometimes, we learn that there may be someone we didn’t even know we needed to forgive – a deep-seated hurt we tucked far behind the walls of our hearts.
When I talk about forgiving, I don’t mean sweeping something under the rug and pretending it isn’t there. I am talking about what occurs in our hearts when we let something go completely. A hurt or past grievance where we have built walls of protection against someone who hurt us, or when we let feelings of failure taunt us, and we cannot forgive ourselves for something in the past or for the person we think we still are today.
Being human, we will have struggles in our flesh. But putting on the whole armor of God helps us to win battles. We are not left defenseless and alone. The moment we give our lives to Jesus, His Holy Spirit resides in us and is our Helper, Comforter, and Healer.
To forgive others or ourselves can seem hard at first, and we need help, but forgiveness takes more than just asking God to help us to forgive – we also have work in our hearts to do, and that is how God helps us to forgive.
Excerpt from Chapter 5 of my book “12 Doors.”
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