Forgiveness-Not Necessarily What You Think

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And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.....Mark11:25-26 KJV

Forgive as the Lord forgave you....Colossians 3:13NIV

Sister, your Father wants you to forgive. We all know this is not easy, in fact, it can be very difficult. The Enemy is jubilant when you do not forgive. But our hearts must be obedient to our beloved Father, first and foremost, above all else. We must overcome Satan's temptation to remain unforgiving.

However, forgiveness and the requirement to forgive are not necessarily what we have been led to believe they are by our abusers and their enablers, or by others who are either misinformed or trying to deceive us. In the Bible, we are told to forgive as the Lord forgave us.(Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:32) The Lord forgives us when we repent. (Ezekiel 33:10-20, Isaiah 55:6-7, Jeremiah 6:16-30 & 26:3, Luke 13:3 & 5, Acts 3:19) He does NOT forgive those who are 'stiff-necked' , refuse to repent, and intend to continue in their sinful ways, and he does not expect us to, either. By forgiving unremorseful evildoers, we are depriving them of the opportunity to repent and transform their lives.

In Luke 17:3, Jesus tells us very clearly that we are to forgive someone who sins against us IF he repents. God does not want us to continue to be abused, in fact, we are told to shun evildoers ( Some examples are Psalm 37:9, Psalm 119:115, Matthew 18:17, Titus 3:10-11, 1 Corinthians 5:1-5. See the article "No Forgiveness For The Unrepentant" under this heading on the left menu for more). But if there is true repentance (see Helpful Definitions), the Lord does want us to forgive.

Click on the articles to the left under "Forgiveness- Not Necessarily What You Think" for details about God's formula for forgiveness, and help in being able to forgive when there truly is repentance. May God bless you in your struggle. With courage from the Lord, the devil, and his tricks to separate us from God's grace, will be defeated! OUR GOD IS A MIGHTY GOD! HALLELUJAH!

If you are interesting in reading more about the Biblical model for forgiveness and offering unconditional forgiveness or forgiveness without repentance, we recommend the RBC website. Click HERE for one article and HERE for another one.

For more on this subject, please visit the Sections SETTING & ENFORCING LIMITS & BOUNDARIES, REBUKING, REPENTING & APOLOGIES, THE ABUSER'S REACTIONS TO REBUKE, and REPROBATES & CUTTING TIES .

Copyright 2003-2010.-All articles on this site are copyrighted. Permission to copy is granted for non-profit use only.Please help yourself to anything we write if you can use it to help others. A link back to this site is our only requirement. Please contact us for any commercial or other use. All e-mails, letters, and other correspondence become the property of Luke 17:3 Ministries, Inc. Due to the large volume of e-mails, we're sorry that we are unable to personally answer every one, but we do lift everyone who writes to us in prayer to the Lord. Please understand that we cannot give you personal advice concerning your particular family relationships. We are not therapists or lawyers, we usually do not have enough information to form an opinion, and time does not permit us to give enough thought to each person's individual situation to do it justice. If you need personal advice, we urge you to contact the appropriate professional, depending on the problem you have- your minister, therapist, attorney, police department, local domestic violence hotline, etc. In reading this site, you acknowledge that nothing you might read here qualifies as or substitutes for professional advice. Our articles are strictly our personal opinions and testimonies and are not intended to give or offer any advice. All who access this site do so with the understanding that we are NOT professional counselors and we strongly recommend that you discuss your individual situation with your pastor or therapist and pray for the Lord's guidance before acting on anything we write on this site. Unfortunately, the abuse we discuss is all too common, inflicted on countless victims by countless perpetrators. All names and identifying details in our articles have been changed to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. Any resemblance to a real person or persons whom you might know is strictly coincidental.