In the center of the circle of the will of God I stand; There can be no second causes; All must come from his dear hand.
Time and time again, people will hurt us or we will be the ones on the offensive side. Sometimes it could be as a result of a careless word uttered. At other times it could be because of something we did or didn’t do. The bottom line in these cases is that someone gets hurt.
When you are hurting, the easiest thing to do at that point is to hold a grudge with the one who hurt you. While we know that it’s required of us to forgive now that we have been forgiven of far worse sins, we still struggle with forgiving. Worse still, we justify our unforgiving.. “They hurt us.. They don’t deserve our forgiveness.” In that instance, the situation feels like you are justified to be mad at them.
The unfortunate thing about this is that it breeds bitterness which is worsened by the realization that the person whom you haven’t forgiven is not bothered. If anything, they could still be going about their lives unaffected by what they have done or rather what you perceive that they have done to you.
I can vividly recall one instance where I struggled to forgive. It was an instance of broken trust. Every time I saw the person, it took me back to that instance when I trusted and got disappointed. I got to a point where I began praying that God would deal with my heart so I would let go. See, I haven’t forgotten what transpired yet because I am writing about it… But it no longer bothers me because God is ardently teaching me how to forgive.
While we may struggle with forgiving, understanding that nothing comes to us without God having allowed it to come our way makes it easier. The relationship that went south, the job contract that wasn’t renewed, the eviction, the accident… all this only happened because God gave the go-ahead. Each of these situations comes to teach us something. If we are open to what God is doing in our lives, when we get to the end of that phase, we’ll come out refined in more areas than one;better not bitter.
As the year wanes, looking back; a lot has happened. I know we’ve had high and low moments and have probably been hurt through it. Let us trust that nothing came to us without God having allowed it. Then we can begin the journey towards forgiveness and healing. We will even have the confidence to say,
“Whatever my soul, though has taught me to say; It is well with my soul”
