“If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14)
I love working with the people in this church—they are smart, friendly, loving and trying to do good things in the world. Still, at times, I get sharply annoyed by someone’s behavior. That’s when I remember a favorite saying of my mother, a lifelong Presbyterian who had a lifetime of experience working beside other church folks.
When somebody at church irritated her, she’d say, “Church is for sinners.” This just softened her heart. It was almost as good as our Sunday service assurance, “In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.”
To me, this doesn’t mean I excuse bad behavior—it’s still bad. But I think the act of forgiveness is one of the best ways to get past the badness and move forward.
I didn’t really understand this until a few years ago when I was deeply hurt and angry about something a friend had done to me. I thought of this wrong off and on for months. It was a black cloud that darkened my life. Finally, I got tired of walking around in its shadow. I decided to pray to be released from my anger. In that instant, it was gone. It just evaporated. I no longer hated my friend even though I still felt he had done a bad thing. I felt I could function again as a happy person. It was the most dramatic answer of prayer I have ever had.
If forgiveness doesn’t necessarily heal the perpetrator, I know I can rely on it to heal me.
Prayer: Dear Lord, if I am holding on to resentment or anger, please help me to let it go, so I can move on to healthier feelings. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Barbara Hoover
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