*Forgiving Others
God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you.
So always do these things: Show mercy to others, be kind, humble, gentle, and patient.
Get along with each other, and forgive each other.
If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you.
Bitterness is its own prison.
The sides are slippery with resentment. A floor of muddy anger stills the feet. The stench of betrayal fills the air and stings the eyes. A cloud of self-pity blocks the view of the tiny exit above.
Step in and look at the prisoners. Victims are chained to the walls. Victims of betrayal. Victims of abuse.
The dungeon, deep and dark, is beckoning you to enter . . . You can . . . you know. You've experienced enough hurt . . .
You can choose, like many, to chain yourself to your hurt . . . Or you can choose, like some, to put away your hurts before they become hates . . .
How hoes God deal with your bitter heart? He reminds you that what you have is more important than what you don't have. You still have the relationship with God. No one can take that.
(He Still Moves Stones)
*Resolving Resentment
Whoever forgives someone's sin makes a friend,
bit gossiping about the sin breaks up friendships.
All of you should be in agreement,
understanding each other, loving each other as family, being kind and humble.
Do not do wrong, and do not insult to repay an insult.
But repay with a blessing,
because you yourselves were called to do this so that you might receive a blessing.
Resentment is the cocaine of the emotions.
It causes our blood to pump and our energy level to rise. But, also like cocaine, it demands increasingly large and more frequent dosages.
There is a dangerous point at which anger ceases to be an emotion and becomes a driving force.
A person bent on a revenge moves unknowingly further and further away from being able to forgive, for to be without the anger is to be without a source of energy.
Hatred is a rapid dog that turns on its owner.
Revenge is the ranging fire that consumes the arsonist.
Bitterness is the trap that snares the hunter.
And mercy is the choice that can set them all free.
(The applause from heaven)
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footnote:
*Archives from the book, GOD's Inspirational Promises by Max Culado.
Max is the only author to have won three Christian Book of the Year* awards—in 1999 for Just Like Jesus, in 1997 for In the Grip of Grace, and in 1995 for When God Whispers Your Name. In 2005, Reader’s Digest magazine dubbed him “America’s Best Preacher” and in 2004, Christianity Today magazine called him “America’s Pastor."
