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\u201cBear with each other\xa0and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.\u201d (Colossians 3:13)

Much of Jesus\u2019 teachings and at least a third of his parables are about forgiveness.\xa0 Over and over again he modeled what it looked like to bless those who curse you and forgive those who don\u2019t deserve forgiveness.\xa0 One of the central pleas of the Lord\u2019s prayer focuses on confession and forgiveness, \u201cForgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.\u201d\xa0 To forgive is to condemn a wrong yet keep hatred and retaliation far from our heart and lips.

Forgiveness is about joining Christ in His mercy, love, and compassion for others and for ourselves. \u201cLove your enemies and pray for those who persecute you\u201d (Matthew 5:44).\xa0 \u201cForgive our sins as we also have forgiven those who sin against us\u201d (Matthew 6:12).\xa0 That\u2019s not an easy thing to do.\xa0 Especially in today\u2019s society.

Abuse, neglect, betrayal, injustice, prejudice and more, and more.\xa0 How can we possibly be expected to forgive when the stakes can be so high?\xa0 First off, forgiveness started with God, not us.\xa0 So, we need God to guide us into the act of forgiveness.\xa0 It is not something that we can do on our own.\xa0 True forgiveness is more that an ideal to attain to.\xa0 It is a costly and often heart wrenching process by which we see the wrong, we place the blame on the wrong and condemn it.\xa0 Yet, forgiveness separates the wrongdoers from their wrong by refusing to label them as \u201chopeless\u201d or \u201crepugnant.\u201d

I recently spoke with someone who was a close friend of a murder victim.\xa0 This person has forgiven the offenders, has been involved with prison ministry in the years since and has a desire to visit the offenders in prison personally.\xa0\xa0 What can cause a person who has endured such pain and trauma to forgive so deeply?

Only through the power of the Holy Spirit is forgiveness such as this possible.\xa0 Christ took on all our sins at the cross so that we would understand what love truly is. \xa0The scars on His hands and feet are proof of that love. \xa0Scars that heal us and give us a fresh start, wherever we are at.\xa0 Love, in all it\u2019s strength and tender-heartedness, in all its hope and pain \u2013 love forgives.\xa0 And forgiveness sets us free.

It\u2019s a sobering thing to stand before God and pray \u201cforgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.\u201d\xa0 In praying these words we turn our gaze inward to our own heart and see the wrongs that lay within.\xa0 This is a prayer for us to be formed into the image of Christ who willingly chose the way of love on the cross.

Forgiveness frees the heart of the one offering forgiveness.\xa0 It holds the memories yet finds the peace of God within those memories through the power of the Holy Spirit which inhabits every Christian.\xa0 The Forgiver is alive and active inside of you and inside of me.\xa0 But it\u2019s usually not an easy road.\xa0 It is a process.\xa0

When the wrong is large enough or strong enough and is found deep within our heart, it may be that we need to offer our forgiveness up to God for the wrong again and again before we feel something start to break.\xa0 It may take a week, or a month, or a year.\xa0 But don\u2019t give up.\xa0 Allow the Spirit of God that is inside of you to keep working through the hurt, through the wrong to heal your heart.\xa0 Only by the grace of God is this possible.\xa0 Through the forgiving love of Christ we are made whole.