Cutting
Anger, bitterness, the desire to get vengeance for your pain, or hurt those who have hurt you will not make you feel better. God says that instead we should put these things away and He has given us a way to do that. He says that we can remove these self-destructive feelings by forgiving others and then He tells us how. God has made provision to forgive sin through allowing Jesus Christ to die on the cross. The Bible tells us that the penalty for sin is death and Jesus died for all sin. Jesus died for the sins that you would commit and the sins that would be committed against you. God accepts the payment that Jesus made for sin and He says that by doing the same thing yourself you can forgive others for the wrongs that you have endured. Carrying around the pain that they have inflicted by their sins only hurts you.
Remember that God has forgiven you because of Christ. God does not look to see if you deserve forgiveness for your sin, He simply chooses to forgive based upon the sacrifice of Christ for you. Likewise, you don’t need to worry about if they deserve to be forgiven, they don’t deserve forgiveness any more than you or I do. Forgiveness is not about whether someone deserves it, it is about me not carrying their burden any longer, it is not as much about them as it is about you.
Let me clarify that forgiveness doesn’t mean that you are saying that what they did is ok–it of course wasn’t ok! That is why Jesus died to pay the price for what they did. Forgiveness is saying that you accept the payment of Christ over the offence. Secondly, forgiveness is not saying that they have the right to hurt you again. As a matter of fact, if they haven’t repented of what they have done, then you should not restore your relationship with them. God has chosen to forgive all sin in Christ but we don’t have a restoration of our relationship with Him until we repent and turn to Him to accept His forgiveness. Forgiveness and repentance are opposite sides of the coin of restoration.
There is a way for you to relieve the pain that you have bottled up and to move on with your life if you will accept God’s answers for your situation and act in faith.
