FORGIVENESS: A way to receive forgiveness from God.

Forgiveness is a gift that a Christian must possess and be ready to freely give out at any time it is needed from him to others, either a fellow believer or an unbeliever. 

According to Webster Dictionary - Forgiveness means to cease to feel resentment against (an offender). 

With the above definition, we see that there's no forgiveness without forgetting, many Christians justify themselves by saying I can forgive but not forget, which means we didn't let go of the resentment but only deceived ourselves.

Forgiveness is a matter of the heart because you can only resent someone in your heart and when offering our worship to God it must come from our heart, how do we now place the worship of our God in a heart full of resentment towards another person. During the teaching about Prayer, the Lord teaches us about forgiveness in prayer and its impact Matt. 6:12 "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors". 

This shows that whenever we come to the presence of God we must acknowledge that we are debtors(sinners) and ask for forgiveness and we have a loving Father Who is ready to forgive and forget our sins but our receiving forgiveness can only be hindered by our own unforgiveness "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" Matt. 6:14&15. 

Why should we forgive?

That our sins might be forgiven. 

The first reason Jesus gave as to why we should forgive is to make us receive forgiveness from the Father as our sin being forgiven is tied to if we do not have any we hold any offense against in our heart. Matt. 6:14.

That our prayer may be answered. 

Another reason for forgiveness is for our prayers and offerings before the Lord to be accepted. Sin will be counted unto us if we forgive not and we know that God heareth not the prayers of sinners, and Jesus also instructed that we settle our quarrel with our brother before we even bring our gift before Him. Matt. 5:23&24 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

To have a free heart. 

As we see the meaning of forgiveness earlier we see it's a matter of the heart and a heart that holds resentment won't be free in itself and that's unhealthy for our being as a human. Unforgiveness is like a virus eating up its' host and it can lead to other health issues... 

Brethren, we are to display the love of Christ to all, and one of the ways we can do this in our dealings with people is to be full of forgiveness to everyone around us, Jesus asked that we should shine our light that men may see and glorify our Father in heaven and one of the best way to shine this light is through forgiveness. 

May the Lord help us as we made up our minds to forgive and forget and let's remember that there's no forgiveness without letting go of the resentment in our hearts towards our offenders. 

God bless us.