Walk in the ways of peace

Last week we talked about forgiveness. It is a hard subject because human nature says, “Nah, I will never forgive them for what they did.” Bible says, “Forgive so you can be forgiven by your Father in heaven.” We can look at this and feel like God is being “mean” to us by commanding us to forgive but the opposite is true. God is actually trying to help us. Everything God commands us to do is for our good.

Matthew 18:22- 35, which we looked at last week, showed us that God has no problem forgiving us. Our sins were paid for by the blood of Jesus. This may be confusing for some, that if our sins are paid for, then why do we need to ask God to forgive us and why are our sins held against us when we don’t forgive or ask for forgiveness?

Let’s imagine I buy you a house. A beautiful house. Your dream home. I tell you, “Hey, I bought this amazing house for you. When you are ready to move in, come see me and I will give you the codes for the door and alarm system etc so you can move in.” You never come to see me. Legally, you are entitled to the house but if you never come to see me to get the codes, then you cannot enjoy the benefits for the house. Likewise. Jesus paid the price for our sins but if we don’t go to the Father to ask for forgiveness, we don’t enjoy the benefits of that sacrifice.

Another thing to consider is that asking for forgiveness deals with pride. To not admit of our failures and shortcomings is to say we have not sinned or do not sin. Only pride can make us believe that we are the one human being on earth who never does anything wrong. 1 John 1:8-10 says, “If we boast that we have no sin, we’re only fooling ourselves and are strangers to the truth. But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we claim that we’re not guilty of sin when God uncovers it with his light, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.”

We have to remember that God is a Person. We have a real, not imagined, relationship with Him. It hurts God and offends Him when we sin. Asking God to forgive our sins helps us to go back into right relationship with Him. It also helps us cleanse our conscience so we can move on from the sin and move forward with God. That’s repentance. We confront the issue. This is what I did, it was wrong, please forgive me. This models to us how we are to relate to each other too. Owning our stuff and our shortcomings is important. So when we refuse to own our stuff and we expect others to own theirs, we are saying a different standard applies to us than them. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. The same standard applies to us all. So we can’t ask God to do for us, what we won’t do for others. We can’t ask God to forgive us if we don’t want to forgive others.

Matthew 6:12 says, “Forgive us the wrongs we have done as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us.” Then Jesus says in verses 14 -15, “And when you pray, make sure you forgive the faults of others so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you withhold forgiveness from others, your Father withholds forgiveness from you.” I don’t know about you, but I definitely cannot afford to have God withhold forgiveness from me. I mess up sometimes. Most likely a lot more than I even realise because if we are honest, we tend to excuse our bad behavior and extend endless amounts of grace to ourselves. “I’m just having a bad day.” That may be true, but it doesn’t make my stank attitude okay. If I treated someone badly, I need to repent for that.

It is also important that we forgive others because unforgiveness opens the door to the enemy. It gives him legal ground to enter your life and torment you, see Matthew 18:34. It allows the devil to steal your peace. Last week we looked at Luke 7:44-47. Verses 48-49 say as follows, “Then Jesus said to the woman at his feet, “All your sins are forgiven.” All the dinner guests said among themselves, “Who is the one who can even forgive sins?” Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith in me has given you life. Now you may leave and walk in the ways of peace.”

Peace comes when we have right standing with God. Unforgiveness steals our peace. We think we are ok with God but more and more we find we have less and less peace and we are stressed and anxious and things that were not a big deal are a big deal and we are overwhelmed… It is time to forgive and let go.

We love to hear how God upholds His word when it comes to promises being made for our lives, but we ignore it when it comes to warnings about unforgiveness and what happens when we don’t forgive. It’s the same God. The same God who keeps His promises, honours His word even when you are at odds with His word. He will still do what His word says He will do. He does not make special exceptions because, “yeah what they did to you was really bad”.

Jesus at the crucifixion prayed forgiveness over the people who were literally killing Him! Being a Christian is not easy. We have to let go of worldly ways of dealing with things and adopt God’s way of dealing with things. Our soul and emotions may kick, scream and shout but at the end of the day, we have to let Holy Spirit rule and reign in us, and we do what the word of God says to do.

Peace follows forgiveness. Forgiving others is really so you can be forgiven. I don’t want to show up on judgment day and find out that there is a stack of sins being counted against me because I would not forgive someone else. We should look at life through the lens of eternity. Is that one thing you are holding onto worth suffering for in eternity or would you rather endure the discomfort of letting it go now so you can live in peace and enjoy eternity with Jesus?

Forgiving the other person is for you. It does not mean what they did was right, but it means we trust God to set things right. When you hold onto unforgiveness, it only hurts you. When you let go and forgive, it releases God to step in on your behalf and set things right. It also releases you to walk in the ways of peace and be in right relationship with God.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.