Fourteen Faith Statements That Will Help You Forgive
This post was inspired by the message Forgiveness Is A Process. Watch it here.
Read Time ~2 Minutes
When someone hurts us, the most natural thing in the world is to want to get even, to withdraw from them, or put up walls in our hearts when we’re around them.
This would seem like wisdom if it didn’t also lock us in a prison of offense, isolation, and anger.
Through Paul, God counsels us to do something that sounds almost impossible. He says we need to not only forgive them but be tenderhearted toward them.
But how do we keep a soft heart toward those who have hurt us?
Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32 (NLT)
Meditation on truth is a powerful tool God has given us to get heavenly thinking into our hearts more naturally.
Here are fourteen truth statements that have helped me to pursue softness of heart in prayer. They build off one another as you reflect on them in order.
My challenge to you is to meditate on these, turning them over-and-over in your mind as you seek to think more rightly about those who have hurt you, even if they’ve hurt you deeply.
Fourteen Truth Statements to Help You Forgive
1. People do evil things to one another (Genesis 6:5).
2. I do evil things to people, purposely and accidentally (Romans 7:18-21).
3. Often people don’t understand the evil they do (Luke 23:34).
4. God is still good (Luke 18:19).
5. Everyone has pain (Genesis 3:17-19; 1 Peter 5:9).
6. I too am a sinner (Romans 6:23).
7. God personally, relationally, and emotionally knows the pain of betrayal deeper than me. He DOES understand and shares this with me (Luke 22:44, 48; John 12:27; 2 Corinthians 1:4).
8. I have been a recipient of radical grace (2 Corinthians 5:17).
9. It is reasonable that recipients of radical grace would demonstrate more radical grace toward others if they were truly appreciative of the grace they’d been shown (Matthew 21:35; James 2:13).
10. God loves me and wants me to be free (John 8:36).
11. I am not powerless. God gives me the power to withhold or grant forgiveness (John 20:23).
12. God can still have good in store for me despite what this person has done (Psalms 27:13).
13. God uses this for my good and to make me more like him (Romans 8:28-29).
14. God fulfills His plan for me despite and through this. (Psalms 138:8).
What other faith-statements would you add?
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Posted on May 8, 2018
