In the last post we talked about breaking the Guilt-Blame cycle. The only way to stop blaming others for our bad decisions is to deal with our guilt and seek forgiveness. If you find yourself living with a critical spirit and negativity, this is the core issue that must be resolved first.
However, once we seek forgiveness from the Father and then forgive others who have hurt us the battle is not over. Forgiveness in essence means, I have received grace and therefore I am going to now give it to you, the debt has been paid.
As we live out our faith in the church scattered there are many people that are going to hurt us deeply. By God’s grace and for His glory we forgive them because we have been forgiven. What we must understand that in our humanity, just because we have forgiven does not mean that we can forget.
Because of this reality, the painful memories of the past are fertile soil for temptation and spiritual warfare. When we are at our most vulnerable, the enemy will remind us of that person or problem that deeply hurt us in the past.
If we are spiritually mature, we will recognize the enemy and we will cast out every evil imagination and bring every thought captive to Christ. If we are not mature, then we will take the bait and start thinking about it all over again.
After twenty minutes or so we are just as angry or bitter as we were before we forgave the person the first time. In essence we now have sinned again and feel convicted over our response. Many Christians then assume that I must have never really forgiven the first time or this would have never happened again.
No, you were sincere and you were forgiven and forgave. The problem is you were tempted again of that painful memory and you chose to live in the past instead of learning from it.
The only way to be free of this painful cycle is to break it once and for all. You must start by going back to the Father and ask for His forgiveness for your current bad decisions and then again give forgiveness to the person who needs it.
Then you must move from how you feel or think about that painful moment to what you believe about it. My go to truth is that I cannot compare what anyone has done to me to what Christ has done for me.
When temptation comes and you start quoting scripture back to the enemy, trust me he will move on. Thats the last thing he wants you to do.