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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a LegacyWelcome to Day 1308 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to WisdomForgiveness is Freedom – Ask Gramps

Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1308 of our Trek and time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday, we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy. As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time where we can ‘Ask Gramps.’  Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, this is not possible. No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.

We may mix it up a bit on our Friday episodes, but will strive to keep them down to earth and enjoyable.  If you have any questions that you would like to ask Gramps, please email them to guthrie@wisdom-trek.com (mailto:guthrie@wisdom-trek.com)

So the question for this week is:

“Hey Gramps, I have been hurt deeply by those who I love, and who are supposed to love me. I wish I could say it’s forgiven and forgotten — but it isn’t. As much as I’ve tried — all I feel is the anger and the bitterness. What wise tips can you give me to help me to let go and be free of the anger and bitterness I have.

 Forgiveness is FreedomI am very sorry that you are struggling with forgiveness and are angry and bitter. You have to realize though, that without forgiveness, bitterness is all that’s left!

Since you didn’t specify, I don’t know what is causing your pain, maybe it’s a very old wound. A parent abused you. A mate betrayed you, and over the years, all you have left is anger and bitterness.

Perhaps the wound is fresh. The friend who owes you money just drove by in a new car. The boss who hired you with promises of promotions has forgotten how to pronounce your name. And you’re hurt!

There’s a dual fire burning in your heart. It’s the fire of anger and bitterness. Although it can be very difficult, as with nearly every situation we face in this life, you do have a choice. Please understand that you are left with a decision. This decision is not based on the offending person asking you for forgiveness. Your decision is not dependent on whether the offending person is sorry for the hurt that they have caused in your life. The choice is yours. Do you forgive anyway and work on the healing of your soul, or do you get even and plan retribution? Are you going to allow your hurts to heal, or do you let your hurt turn into hate?

Forgiveness is not foolishness. Forgiveness, at its core, is choosing to see your offender with different eyes. How can recipients of God’s grace and forgiveness do anything less? Matthew 6:14-15 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A14-15&version=NLT) If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

This is a huge issue in Scripture because it is a huge issue to God! Jesus was tough on sinners who refused to forgive other sinners. Let me share an analogy of the damaging effects of unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the person you hate to die.  Unforgiveness will eventually kill you and you fill up with anger and bitterness. Another analogy on the positive effect...