Unexpected Weight Loss

Scripture Reading: Matthew 18:21-35

Today’s Treasure: “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).

Unparalleled joy and victory come from allowing Christ to do “the hard thing” with us. Perhaps nothing is harder than forgiveness. Let’s face it. Each of us has been confronted by some pretty overwhelming challenges to forgive. Some seem…well, unforgivable. We argue with God that all inflicted hurts are not created equally. For instance, sometimes the person who hurt us isn’t sorry. Or won’t take responsibility. Or is in the grave. Or the person might be sorry but refuses to recompense. Perhaps the person simply doesn’t deserve our forgiveness. After all, forgiveness would make everything OK, and we want the record to show: we’re not OK! Then, if we let it, truth begins to eclipse our mound of excuses: we won’t be OK until we forgive. If only we could understand that God’s unrelenting insistence on our forgiveness is for our own sakes, not the sake of the one who hurt us. God is faithful. He will plead our case and take up our cause… but only when we make a deliberate decision to cease representing ourselves in the matter.

Innumerable strongholds are connected to an unwillingness to forgive. Left untreated, unforgiveness becomes spiritual cancer. Bitterness takes root, and since the root feeds the rest of the tree, every branch of our lives and every fruit on each limb ultimately become poisoned. Beloved sister or brother, the bottom line is…unforgiveness makes us sick. Always spiritually. Often emotionally. And, surprisingly often, physically.

Please keep in mind that forgiveness is not defined by a feeling, although it will ultimately change our feelings. The Greek word most often translated “forgiveness” in the New Testament Scripture is aphiemi, meaning “to send forth or away, let go from oneself. To let go from one’s power, possession. To let go from one’s further…attendance, occupancy.” Forgiveness is our determined and deliberate effort to let something go. To release it from our possession. To be willing and ready for it to no longer occupy us. God is not asking us to let “it” go haphazardly into the black hole of non-existence. Forgiveness means letting it go to God. Letting it go from our power to His. Forgiveness is the ongoing act by which we agree with God over the matter, practice the mercy He’s extended to us, and surrender the situation, the repercussions, and the hurtful person to Him.

Don’t expect Satan to let you off the hook of unforgiveness easily. Be prepared to recommit to forgiveness every single day until you’re free. Second Corinthians 2:11 warns us to forgive “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” The King James Version says me must forgive “lest Satan should get an advantage of us.” The Word of God clearly teaches that Satan takes tremendous advantage of any unforgiveness in our lives. Unforgiveness qualifies as one of the most powerfully effective forms of bondage in any believer’s life. We cannot tolerate it. Yes, this stronghold demands serious demolition, but the liberty you will feel when you finally let it go is inexpressible! Forgiveness is the ultimate “weight loss”!

Lord, in the parable of the unmerciful servant, the only person in the end who was imprisoned and tortured was the one who would not forgive. Help me to see the monumental price of unforgiveness. It is so enslaving and torturous. According to Matthew 18:35, You may allow me to suffer the same kind of repercussions if I refuse to forgive from my heart someone who has sinned against me. Please help me release the offense to You and be freed from the weight I’ve been carrying. In the name of Jesus, who has forgiven my own sins, Amen.

Adapted from Praying God’s Word, by Beth Moore, pages 220-223. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000, 2003.