The Daily Walk

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The Daily Walk Part 7 - How to Forgive

by Gail Rodgers
“How do you forgive someone?” Tears filled her eyes as she asked this question and told me how she had tried and tried to forgive, yet the pain just wouldn’t go away.

Forgiveness is not forgetting. It is a crisis of your will…a choice you make. It is not something you do for the sake of the other person. You forgive for your own sake. It is not an issue between you and the offender; it is between you and God.
Yet many come back, as this dear lady did, to say, “I thought I forgave, but the hurt is still there.”
When you have truly let the person who hurt you off your hook, leaving them to God and you find the pain still remains, there is something you can do. It doesn’t mean your forgiveness has not been sincere.
Our emotions get damaged when we get hurt. Often in forgiving we fail to acknowledge the damage that has occurred in our emotions. God is the great Healer and our Redeemer who buys back the damaged goods and restores them.
Go to God and tell Him that you have forgiven your offender. Tell God how the offense made you feel. Ask Him to take the shame of the incident and resulting lies you began to believe about yourself that you were unwanted, unlovable, foolish, shameful, or unacceptable. Be honest.
Tell God you accept His love and the filling of the Holy Spirit and give all those damaged emotions to Him, asking Him to heal them. Unhealed emotions can become a filter through which we put the daily experiences of life, and unhealed hurt can grow.
The Holy Spirit brings the oil of healing to your soul. Sometimes it happens immediately and sometimes it occurs over time as you acknowledge the lies you believed about yourself..
God tells us in His Word…

“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1

Be a prisoner no longer! Turn to the Healer of your heart.
prayer & reflection

Father God,
I thank you for Your wonderful forgiveness extended to me. I extend that same forgiveness to my offender. Now as I release my damaged emotions to You, I ask that Your grace will lavish my heart with Your healing. Thank you that You have shown me the lies I began to believe about myself. Thank you that You are my Great Redeemer who redeems my wounded spirit.
In Jesus’ strong name I pray, Amen.