How the story of Christ on the cross has helped me find forgiveness.
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If there is anything you can learn from the death of Christ I would suggest you read this scripture found in Luke 23:34, which reads, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do … ”
This quote from the bible has been a guiding light for me during my life and has at times brought peace to my soul when I’ve truly applied it. You see I’ve grown up with a lot of people I could hate. I have many reasons to live in constant anger and at times I allow it to grow like a fire until it threatens to engulf me and my family. However, before it can become a raging inferno I repeat this quote to myself, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
These words are powerful as they can help shine a light on why we should forgive others. You see I know I’m not perfect and I understand that I’ve hurt not some but a lot of people growing up. In many of these cases I probably didn’t even know I had done so, which doesn’t take away from the pain I inflicted but it does help me to remember that some wrongs inflicted are not purposeful.
Even when it seems that way as in the case of Jesus and those who crucified him. But in his great wisdom he realized that the people putting him on the cross didn’t know any better. They didn’t believe he was the messiah they saw him as a carpenters son. They were soldiers doing their job. With this frame of thought it is easier to find compassion for those who killed him and why he would have said those words.
Now this doesn’t mean everyone who has wronged you doesn’t know what they’re doing. Some undoubtedly do and are cruel in their treatment of you but has holding onto anger and bitterness ever helped you? Unless you’re an athlete in a violent sport probably not. Anger just eats you up inside. Anger is like a fire that consumes everything in it’s path and is never satisfied until you cut off it’s fuel, which in this case is an unwillingness to forgive.
So as you finish up your Easter Egg hunt and hoard your kids candy I would ask that you think about the power that forgiveness can have in your life if you allow it to. You’ll find like the easter eggs you hide for your children that you’ll be surprised with what blessings forgiveness will leave you as you apply Luke 23:34.
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Photo: Flickr/Todd Fong
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