The Power To Forgive Completely (Clip)
This is why you forgive completely, because when you forgive completely, it makes you do that work, right? Like, if you don't forgive completely, it's just sort of hanging out there, and you never actually pursue whatever it is you're supposed to get from that, right? It's like this lack of forgiveness in one area that keeps a lot of other things, whether other relationships, because we don't know it, but we're carrying this baggage into other relationships. When I think about forgiving completely, I can't help but remember that the reason I can forgive completely is because I feel that I've been forgiven completely. We know that we're completely forgiven by God, and through what he's done for us, put himself on a cross for me so that I could be completely forgiven.
The reason that I'm continually motivated to get better at forgiveness is because God has set the standard for me. And so where God, being totally perfect, could have left us in our own imperfection, he said, no, he loves me that much that he wants me to be completely forgiven so that we can be restored into a relationship. And so it's like, wow, I've just been given a clean slate, and God extends forgiveness to me.
Why is it so hard for me to extend forgiveness for someone else? Because I'm so aware of how much I fall short. And this is not about me having a pity party. This is not about me having low self-esteem about it.
This is not about me feeling, oh, I'm so guilty, and I beat myself up about it. This is about me recognizing what a sacrifice that God made for me. This is about me recognizing how big and great God's love is for me.
It makes me want to extend that same thing out to someone else. I think on my own, I'm not even motivated to forgive someone else. But because I've just been overwhelmed by what God has done for me, that's what allows me to have the power.
