Did you know that holding on to grudges can cause you to be physically and emotionally sick? If that is the case, then why walk around holding it in your heart and mind what someone did to you two or three decades ago? You have allowed the pain to eat at you so much that you no longer trust anyone, and you are steadily building up irrational feelings of hate. Nine times out of ten, the person who wronged you has probably moved on with his or her life and has not given a second thought to whatever happened. Also, the resentment you are harboring could be something that you took the wrong way, but you won’t really know because you did nothing to take the first step in the healing process.
What we sometimes tend to forget is that God forgave us. Further, what would life be like if God did not forgive us? Matthew 6:14, ESV says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Therefore, if our Father in Heaven forgives us of the things that we say and do that are wrong, then why can we not forgive our brothers and sisters when they wrong us? Here are some of the reasons why I personally think we choose not to forgive one another:
• Some of us think that it can wait until tomorrow, but tomorrow is not promised to any of us.
• Often, we allow the attitude of stubbornness to get in the way.
• No one wants to take “the first step.”
• Some of us feel that others will look at us as fools if we forgive someone who has wronged us. Remember that we all must give an account of our own sins.
• Revenge is something on which some of us are bent.
• There are those of us who enjoy a “pity party,” telling anyone who will listen how someone has wronged us.
All of us have to remember that forgiveness is not for the other person. It is for you so that you can begin the healing process, go on with your life, and not allow that person to continue to hurt you. Once you forgive someone for his or her wrong toward you, it doesn’t mean that you have to go out to dinner with that individual or become pals, but what it does mean is that you have decided to let go of something over which you have no control. In other words, you have finally made the decision to turn it over to Jesus. Therefore, make up your mind that in 2026, you are going to leave your hurts behind and forgive! Have a wonderfully blessed New Year, and never leave home without Him!
