A week of revival meetings has started at the church I fellowship at. Last night the evangelist starting theme was on forgiveness.He talked about formal forgiveness vs sincere forgiveness. He shared a story of his grandchildren to illustrate the difference.The little boy and girl were fighting. The little girl had started it with pushing the boys buttons. It got to a point where the little boy bonked her on the head with a toy. The little girl started to cry and wale. The grandfather new the fulleness of what had happened. He told the little boy that she should not have been taunting him but that was no excuse for him to do what he did. He told him to apolgize and forgive. So the little boy hesitantly said "Sooorrryy". Grandpa told him now you didn't mean that. I want you to hug sissy and really apologize. So this time little boy hugged and said sorry but also began to cry. Sissy began to cry as well and they bothed just hugged and hugged and cried and crid for a bit. Then little boy turned to grandpa and said now you got me cryin grandpa.I may not have retold the story as well as he told it last night, but it illustated the differnece between formal and sincere forgiveness.I also remember reading Goforths ,"By thy Spirit" about revival in China. I remember a part in there in breaking the roadblock to revival that it had to do with forgiveness towards one another.Seems pretty important to me.
I remember a part in there in breaking the roadblock to revival that it had to do with forgiveness towards one another.
_________________Sandra Miller
quote from ginnyrose,"In the meantime, one must live with a forgiving mentality. There is the human element in which misunderstandings occur in which reside no malice whatsoever. This kind of thing happens all the time and a forgiving mentality soothes many ruffled feathers and prevent a lot of knee-jerk reactions." I agree,very well said.
Prov. 15:1 "A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stirreth up anger" This verse has helped me through many times in life to prevent a situation which could turn into explosive situations to begin with. I had a close relative that I could not express my point of veiw about anything with out getting a harsh lecture about how wrong I was even though I knew in my heart this person was wrong. To keep from makeing matters worse I would answer in a kind way and just drop the subject. Later when this person was proven wrong by circumstances that happened, an appology never came for the harsh words that were spoken. I was not the only one who was treated this way by this person. I did a lot of crying and praying about the matter but when I really forgave and got a burden for this person and started praying for the person instead of about the person I was able to truly forgive.Unforgiveness in our heart is like an acid inside a vessel. It eats away and destroys the container.We are in control of our attitudes. We can't control what others think or say or do but we can control our attitudes and how we react to them.I choose to forgive instead of holding a grudge. I have learned it is much healthier physically and spiritually.
_________________Decana Espinaton
I also remember reading Goforths ,"By thy Spirit" about revival in China. I remember a part in there in breaking the roadblock to revival that it had to do with forgiveness towards one another.
_________________Redi