Friday March 11, 2011

Theme: Enemy Love

Weekend Music links on iTunes: All to You - Lincoln Brewster, Happy Day - Tim Hughes, Hosanna - Hillsong, Attention - Know Hope Collective

Think: Here are a few steps to guide you as you forgive the people in your life who have caused you pain.

1)    Acknowledge the sin committed. In our quest to minimize or maximize someone else’s faults and our own pain, we often misjudge the affect of another’s sin upon us. Instead, we must acknowledge to ourselves the harm that’s been done. Sometimes this is best done by journaling or by talking with a friend or counselor.

2)    Allow yourself to feel the pain that accompanied the sin. This will include grieving what has been lost and/or what you needed but didn’t get. This may be lost innocence, a lost dream, lost possessions, loss of esteem, or loss of a person. Allowing yourself to feel and grieve fully is often skipped, but a necessary step in healing.

3)    Acknowledge your part in the conflict or wrong doing. As adults, we can take ownership of how we have contributed to the mess. Side note: this does not apply to childhood abuse. Children are never responsible the sin of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.

4)    Commit to yourself and to God that you will forgive. To forgive means that you will no longer hold that person accountable for the pain he/she has caused you. You release them to the care of God. Ask God for help in this area. Letting go is as much an act of the heart, as the mind. This is also done by praying God’s love for the person.

5)    Acknowledge forgiveness is not the same as restoration. Forgiveness is a personal decision independent of whether the offender is repentant or even living. However, restoration is a process where both parties are restored to one another within the context of a mutual healthy relationship. This cannot always happen. 

The process of forgiveness is not easy, but the pathway to our own peace and happiness.

Pray: Lord, help me to go deeper with you into healing and forgiveness. Help me not to give up when it seems impossible, but to trust you to help me.

Do: Write down where you are in the forgiveness process and your next step.

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.