Ephesians 4:29-32
An unforgiving spirit is like an insidious cancer that eats away at a person until it has a devastating impact. But while physical cancer often can’t be seen or felt until it is a real danger, the cancer of unforgiveness often steals a person’s joy for years. Yet there is a sure healing process for this cancer:
Repentance: You must assume responsibility for your unforgiving spirit toward someone and then have a change of mind. You must ask forgiveness for your unforgiveness, and then you must forgive the person in mind.
Release: No longer should you hold over someone the debt you feel they owe you. This release is an act of the will. Feelings have nothing to do with it, though some people sense a "release" of their own at this point.
Recognition: You acknowledge that the person’s wrongdoing toward you exposed a weakness in your life. Your resentment, hostility, bitterness, and desire to seek vengeance are areas God wishes to whittle away.
Remembrance:: You should remember continuously how often God forgives you. How many times have you asked His forgiveness? How many times has He said no?
You cannot truly experience the joy of God’s forgiveness until you follow His model and forgive those who have wronged you. Life is so much sweeter when the heart is tender and not tainted.
Be the first to react on this!
Charles Frazier Stanley was born September 25, 1932, in the small town of Dry Fork, Virginia. The only child of Charley and Rebecca Stanley, Charles came into the world during a time when the entire nation felt the grip of the Great Depression. To make matters worse, just nine months later, his father Charley died at the young age of 29.
However, Charles refused to let the Great Depression or the difficulties of his life define him. Instead, like his father and grandfather before him, he clung to God’s Word and took up the mantle to preach the gospel to whoever would listen.
Dr. Stanley’s motivation is best represented by the truth found in Acts 20:24, “Life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God's mighty kindness and love.” This is because, as he says, “It is the Word of God and the work of God that changes people’s lives.”
Dr. Stanley’s teachings can be heard weekly at First Baptist Church Atlanta, daily on “In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley” radio and television broadcasts on more than 2,800 stations around the world, on the Internet at intouch.org, through the In Touch Messenger, and in the monthly, award-winning In Touch magazine.