Forgiveness vs. Repentance

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cmarieh

Guest
#1
#1
Matthew 5:43-48- NKJV

43You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy'44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45"that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He make His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brethren only what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.

I believe we all struggle in our own ways of forgiving those who wrong us and I am one of them, although it is a work in progress. I believe there is a dimension of God's love that can be experienced in no other way than through forgiving those who have become enemies. God is not asking anything of us that he himself has already done. When we consider that all men have offended God, becoming his enemy, and that God has loved us anyway and has forgiven us, it is easier to understand why God tell us us to forgive.

I also believe we must recognize resentment against others and learn to forgive them and once we have forgiven them we are then encouraged to repent of our feelings. After recognizing and repenting of those feelings we need to praying for those people who persecuted us.
 
Wornwarrior

Wornwarrior

Senior Member
#2
May 11, 2015
172
3
18
#2
He is such a loving God! We do all struggle with the flesh no doubt, but when those feelings of anger towards someone else is given over to God, we not only are capable of loving them ... but we also experience so much peace. As the body of Christ we shouldn't be easily offended, but we still are sometimes. The more we focus on Gods love, the more love we are able to show others and where there is love, anger will be far off. God bless you for sharing.
 
A

atwhatcost

Guest
#3
#3
cmarieh said:
Matthew 5:43-48- NKJV

43You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy'44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45"that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He make His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brethren only what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.

I believe we all struggle in our own ways of forgiving those who wrong us and I am one of them, although it is a work in progress. I believe there is a dimension of God's love that can be experienced in no other way than through forgiving those who have become enemies. God is not asking anything of us that he himself has already done. When we consider that all men have offended God, becoming his enemy, and that God has loved us anyway and has forgiven us, it is easier to understand why God tell us us to forgive.

I also believe we must recognize resentment against others and learn to forgive them and once we have forgiven them we are then encouraged to repent of our feelings. After recognizing and repenting of those feelings we need to praying for those people who persecuted us.
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Do you think, if it's safe, one should forgive by going to the person to sort it out first. (And by "if it's safe," I'm automatically saying that's just stupid if the person physically poses a threat to your safety.)

I'm asking because I've gone to the brother several times to try to forgive, but he's never given me the opportunity to forgive. His reaction, before he wants something from me, is to say, "I don't know if your angry with me for anything, but I'm sorry for whatever you think I've done, and now I'm talking to you about something serious."

It seems to me, he's pretending to catch a vibe that I have something against him, (which he wouldn't know because he only talks to me when he needs something and I'm so angry with him I don't know how to talk to him by now), but, in reality, he really does know what he did (and there are many things he's done), it slams the door on any chance to forgive him.

Love him, yes. Forgive him? How?

And let it go is out of the question because we've never talked about any of the problems we have, so they just keep piling up.
 
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