Six Steps to Forgiveness

[rizen1]

Six Steps to Forgiveness
Sharon Jaynes

Let me walk with you through six steps to forgiveness that might help you in the process:

*On a piece of paper, write the name of the person who has hurt you.

*Write down how the person hurt you (i.e. rape, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, betrayal, desertion, rejection, etc.)

*Write down how you feel about that person. Be honest. God knows how you feel.

*Decide to forgive. Forgiveness is not a feeling but a decision of the will. God will never tell us to do something without providing the power to obey. He has told us to forgive and will give us the power-- but it all begins with the decision to do so.

*Take your list to God and confess your forgiveness to Him. "Lord, I come to You today and give up my unforgiveness. I forgive_____for __________. At this moment, I choose not to hold his/her offense against him/her, but put them into your hands. I pray that you will heal my emotional wounds and help me to be able to help someone else with the same comfort you have given me. I cut ______ loose."

*Destroy the list. As a visual exercise, destroy the list. Some have taken the list to a safe place, such as a fireplace, and burned it. Others have actually nailed the paper to a wooden cross. Still others have written the person's name that they are forgiving on a helium balloon and released it to heaven. However you choose, give the name to God.

 

[Fragrant Grace]

Dear sister rizen1

This is very useful......I tried it for someone I had been struggling to forgive.

It certainly gets all the bad feelings out and much more into perspective. I didnt realise I was holding such a grudge until I saw what I'd written down....but now Ive given all those feelings to the Lord. It was me who needed more forgiveness not the other person!

The Lord bless you

Julia

Teach me Thy way O Lord Psalm 27:11

 

[rizen1]

That's great...
May the joy of salvation fill you today.
I think I have some people I need to make a list for.

I'll let you know how that turned out.
God bless

 

[Property Of God]

I needed it, does it really work?

Sometimes I think about the hurt and I feel like a fire is burning inside, I don't plan to take revenge at all though, but I just get angry, I never wish this person bad things, but I don't wish them well either,

Can you get how ugly and un christian I feel?

Will ths really work? I wanna be free from this.

 

[rizen1]

Sister, I'll be honest sometimes I slip,when I realise I didn't really forgive someone. And the reason was my Pride, I wanted them to feel the hurt they placed on me. Forgiving them seem to easy, I felt like I was letting them get away with it.

I fought God, I was like he/she did me this she should be punish, I can't wait for God's wrath to falll on them.

But then I remembered Jesus..

Luke 23:32-35
32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."[a] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."

People will be evil doers..and we need to show them mercy by forgiving them. It is hard, but give it a try.

take a look at this thread

http://www.talkjesus.com/women/23593-gods-healing-salve.html

 

[rizen1]

Neil Anderson

The choice of Forgiveness

References:--Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has also forgiven you


Most of the ground that Satan gains in the lives of Christians is due to unforgiveness. We are warned to forgive others so that Satan cannot take advantage of us (2 Corinthians 2:10, 11). God requires us to forgive others from our hearts or He will turn us over to the tormentors (Matthew 18:34, 35). Why is forgiveness so critical to our freedom? Because of the cross. God didn't give us what we deserve ; He gave us what we needed according to His mercy. We are to be merciful just as our heavenly Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). We are to forgive as we have been forgiven (Ephesians 4:31, 32).

Forgiveness is not forgetting. People who try to forget find that they cannot. God says He will "remember no more" our sins (Hebrews 10:17), but God, being omniscient, cannot forget. "Remember no more" means that God will never use the past against us (Psalm 103:12). Forgetting may be a result of forgiveness, but it is never the means of forgiveness. When we bring up the past and use it against others, we haven't forgiven them.

Forgiveness is a choice, a crisis of the will. We choose to face and acknowledge the hurt and the hate in order to forgive from the heart. Since God requires us to forgive, it is something we can do. (He would never require us to do something we cannot do.) But forgiveness is difficult for us because it pulls against our concept of justice. We want revenge for offenses suffered. But we are told never to take our own revenge (Romans 12:19). "Why should I let them off the hook?" we protest. You let them off your hook, but they are never off God's hook. He will deal with them fairly--something we cannot do.

If you don't let offenders off your hook, you are hooked to them and the past, and that just means continued pain for you. Stop the pain; let it go. You don't forgive someone merely for their sake; you do it for your sake so you can be free. Your need to forgive isn't an issue between you and the offender; it's between you and God.

Prayer:

Lord, I stand amazed at the example of Your forgiveness. I desire to grow in my willingness to forgive those who have hurt me.

http://www.talkjesus.com/scriptural-answers/207-forgiveness.html

 

[Brother Mike]

What an awesome thread!!!

What an awesome thread!!! follow the advice rizen1 has given.. even if someone has molested your child!!! Forgive them. Being Unforgiving cuts the power of God off that is available to fix the wrong done...
-------------------------
Testimonial:
I was living in a large dorm (Locked up. another story) watching the WWF (World Wrestling federation) Cheering on a beating one guy was being admisistered.

My Brother Kevin came to me, with whom I had fellowship with everyday in prayer and bible study, and said, "Now that's a godly example your showing the rest of these guys, watching wrestling!!!"

I told him that he should mind his own business and not be so judgmental for what others allow.

Well, we stopped talking to each other from that point on. After all he started it.
A week went by, and a virus swept through our dorm. 45 people out of a hundred were hospitalized and most of the rest had to get medication. Our dorm was quarantined and they feed us with Styrofoam trays. We were not allowed to go anywhere. I also became very sick, and did not even have the energy to get out of my bunk.

I took my stand on the Word of God. I commanded devils to leave me alone, and commanded the sickness to leave. Bless God, I had been healed before, and I know my authority and my faith will over come. I did not go to the doctor, as healed people don't need doctors.

Well, two weeks passed and I did not feel any better, In fact, I started to have some more alarming symptoms. I then did what I hate doing, I went to God and asked him why my faith was not working. Sometimes we just need more wisdom on something. The Lord spoke to my heart suddenly. God said, "Go tell your Brother you love him." That is all He said. So I told God if my brother comes to me I will tell him that.

Another Half a week passed, and I was just feeling Horrible. some of the other inmates had gotten some better, this was a nasty virus and I wish I could remember the name of it. I was still waiting for my brother to come apologize. I walked out in to our day room and saw him sitting on a chair reading his bible. The Love of God came over me and I shuffled over to him and told him that I was sorry, and that I love him. We hugged and cried, and I told him I had to go lay back down.

As I was walking back to my bed, the power of the anointing flooded all over me, It was strong... It's hard to describe to those who have not experienced it. I was healed instantly on the spot. My throat was still a little scratchy, but I felt like a million dollars. No, fever, no pain, nothing!!!

Holding bitterness in your heart will block the power of God from your life faster than any other thing you can do. It will destroy you physically, mentally and ruin you financially.

Even when my wife started sleeping with another man while I was locked up, I would just pray for that man to be blessed every time the devil mentioned the situation to me. Yes, it hurt, and yes I prayed in tears, but I told the devil every time He brings those thoughts up, that man, that was sleeping with my wife was going to be the most blessed man on the planet. After a few months that pain left, and only the love of God for him was there. I got my wife and children back, and still married after 18 years.

Sorry for it being so long, but I hope it helps someone.
Jesus Is Lord.

 

[Fragrant Grace]

Thats quite an account Brother Mike wow

Sometimes I think about the hurt and I feel like a fire is burning inside, I don't plan to take revenge at all though, but I just get angry, I never wish this person bad things, but I don't wish them well either,

Can you get how ugly and un christian I feel?

Will ths really work? I wanna be free from this.

Dear sister Nermeen

I found it worked........

I did this little exercise because I was feeling very angry towards someone....and I found that everytime they came into my mind I felt bitter and cold.

However, I understand now that I have been trying to forgive with my own feelings rather than placing my feelings into God's hand to deal with.

Once I had written my list of resentments, pain and hurts.....and looked at what I'd written in the light of the love and forgiveness of Jesus.....I felt quite silly. I asked the Lord to forgive me, and left the 'list' at the foot of His cross.... I felt like my heart had been swept of cobwebs.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Heb 12 1-3

Dear sister Nermeen, once you consider everything in the light of Jesus...you will find all these feelings pale into insignificance.

The Lord bless you

Julia