#60: Forgiveness

On episode 60, Tim discusses everyone's favorite topic: forgiveness.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to episode number sixty of Bring Heaven Down. My
name is Tim and m the host of this daily
devotional show. We've made it sixty episodes. Make sure you
hit that follow button wherever you're listening to this podcast
and rate and review the show as well if you're
willing to do that. If you have a question or comment,

(00:23):
a testimony, a concern, or disagreement, email the show Bring
Heaven Down seven at gmail dot com. All Right, on
today's show, I want to talk about everybody's favorite topic
of forgiveness and the benefit of forgiveness. Someone hurts you,

(00:47):
you're frustrated or bitter, obviously disappointing, and I want to
talk about the challenge of forgiveness. All right, grab your
favorite drinker, come up coffee, bring heaving a little closer together.

(01:09):
Forgiveness is never fun because it requires everyone to see
past their own individual pride. It requires those that have
been hurt to think about the situation in a place

(01:35):
that isn't selfish. Because it's easy to be hurt, it's
easy to take things personally and hold those with you
for a really long time. It's easy to get hurt,
get offended, be disappointed, and then hold that with you

(01:56):
for years because we're too prideful to forgive. And as
much as forgiveness is for the other person that hurt you,
forgiveness is as much for the person that got hurt
as it is for the person that hurt you. Sure

(02:17):
it's important to mend those relationships again, and it's not
good to hold bitterness and frustration and disappointment in your heart.
But that's exactly why forgiveness is as much for the
person that got hurt than it is for the person

(02:42):
that hurt you, Because you don't want to hold onto
those bitter feelings in your heart for long periods of time,
because it's not healthy, and that's not what God calls
us to do. Ephesians chapter four, verse thirty two says,
be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as

(03:05):
God in Christ forgave you Mark eleven twenty five. And
whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone,
so that your Father also, who is in heaven, may
forgive your trespasses. Luke six point thirty seven. Judge not,
and you will not be judged. Condemned not, and you

(03:27):
will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Three separate verses in three different chapters of the Bible
all say the exact same thing in different ways, but
it all leads to the bigger point. It says in Ephesians,

(03:49):
forgive one another, as God in Christ forgave you and
Mark eleven twenty five, so that your father also, who
is in heaven, may forgive your trespasses Luke six thirty seven.
Forgive and you will be forgiven. Forgiveness is a topic

(04:12):
that brings lots of tension because we do not like
to admit our own mistakes because of our pride. But
what we need to do. The first step of forgiveness
is to put on the righteousness of Jesus. Is to

(04:33):
put on the clothes of Jesus, if you will, and
is to lean on the Holy Spirit for guidance and
for strength, because when we choose to live with the
bitterness in our heart, then we are not living like

(04:55):
Jesus are. For Jesus, because if you think about how
much we each individually sin, and we don't deserve to
be forgiven. We deserve eternal punishment, and hell, we don't
deserve Jesus's grace and mercy. I haven't done anything to
deserve that. All I do is trust in Him and

(05:15):
have faith in him, and I ask for forgiveness and
he forgives, But I don't deserve to be forgiven. I
sin every single day, way more than I even understand,
and that's even on prayer. Lord, I'm sorry for the
time that I sin and I don't even recognize it.
And if Jesus is willing to forgive me time and

(05:37):
time again, then we need to push aside our own
arrogance and pride and forgive those around us to mend
those relationships and to also live a life that's not
full of bitterness and frustration. When I worked at job

(05:58):
several years ago, a long time ago, I was just
out of college, I felt very unfairly treated and eventually
got a new job and it went to Washington, DC
and moved there, and I remember channeling those moments where
I was treated unfairly and using it as motivation going

(06:22):
forward to prove them wrong, to showcase that I was
deserving and that they were making the mistake. And it
really feeled me and motivated me, but it was not
a healthy way of living. Eventually, I needed to let
go of that because allowing that to feel me sure

(06:44):
gave me energy, but it was not christ like. It
was not a godly way of living. So if you
need to forgive someone, I want to challenge you today.
Let this be the beginning. Let this be the start.
Pray about it, think about it, read Bible verses about it.
Forgive each other, Forgive someone that hurt you, because I

(07:09):
don't want you channeling those emotions of hurt for the
rest of your life. I don't want you channeling the
bitterness in your heart for the rest of your life.
And just as Jesus forgives us really quickly, Jesus doesn't
hold onto these things forever. As soon as we confess

(07:30):
were forgiving, we can forgive one another as well. Thank
you for choosing Jesus today, and I hope the Holy
Spirit revealed more and more about our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.