unforgiveness until your spiritual life is hard and crisp around
the edges. Lifeless. Comatose.
But Jesus... He wants you free. That’s what He created
you for.
“Forgive us our debts,” He taught us to pray, “as we also
have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12), followed a couple of
verses later by this corollary statement: “For if you forgive
others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you” (v. 14).
Might want to go back and read those verses again
carefully, despite how familiar they may be to you. These
words of Jesus suggest a connection between the way we
handle others’ offenses against us and the way God handles
our offenses against Him.
Now the whole counsel of Scripture affirms that our
salvation (our eternal security with God) is based solely on the
work of Jesus on the cross. No action or inaction on our part
(such as struggling to forgive someone who’s wounded you)
can sever the covenant of grace He’s made with us. But
something at least happens to our experience with the Father