Wondrous love inspires forgiveness

One of the amazing results of God's wondrous love for us is that we can learn to forgive others. I don't mean to be flippant, but think about it: if He forgave us as freely as He did, shouldn't that inspire us to forgive others? Each day we rise with renewed determination to be more like Him.....

Lately I have given a lot of thought to the concept of forgiveness, and I prayed about if it might be a good thing for us to study. We're coming up on the Advent season, and I believe the Spirit would have us focus here.....to focus first on forgiving those who may be unbelievers, then on forgiving brothers and sisters in Christ, and lastly on forgiving ourselves. I hope you will stick with me as we study!

Probably most of us will never be forced to endure the type of situation that missionary wife Gladys Staines has dealt with. Her story truly gives us pause to think, to consider, and then to think again. Almost thirty years ago, the Staines family was ministering in India with people who suffer from leprosy. Gladys and Graham (he was a 34 year veteran of the mission field) had come from Australia to bring the Word of God to the people at the leper colony, and had been conducting open-air meetings in a nearby village. Graham and his two sons were asleep in their vehicle, and a group of militant Hindus soaked the vehicle with gasoline and set it afire. They went even further than that -- they prevented onlookers from rescuing the missionary and his sons.

The horror of the killings spread and called attention to the increasing violence against Christians in India. But the witness of Staines' widow, Gladys, has called attention to the power of God's love and forgiveness. Here are Gladys' own words:

 "When Christians show that they are determined to continue in their faith, when people see that believers have a peace that others don’t have, and when people see a complete lifestyle change on the part of believers, they start asking, "What is this all about? We’ve taunted you and done this and done that, and still you stand here for Christ. Tell us what it’s all about.
After Graham’s death, everyone expected me to go back to Australia. They also expected me to take the bodies back and bury them in Australia. It never occurred to me to do such a thing. Graham and I would rather be buried in the country where we were serving. So we buried them in the cemetery at the leprosy home.
It is a tremendous witness now, as people come to the cemetery. We’ve got a gravestone inscribed with "Where, O grave, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?"
When I was explaining to my daughter that Graham and the boys had been killed, we agreed that we would forgive those who did it. And I can say from my own experience that forgiveness brings healing."

To me, that is amazing.
To some, it may even sound too good to be true.
How can someone just make up their mind to forgive another person, or a group of people?
Especially when they have killed your family?

I've come to believe that forgiveness is similar to love.... it is a choice, not a feeling. I believe that we choose to forgive or not to forgive. And forgiveness is not always fair, by our human, earthly standards.
We know that the Bible encourages us to forgive. Urges us, exhorts us. But that's head knowledge, right? And what about when our hearts are hurting?
I found a quote that I'd like to share as we start our study.....this if from the book, "What's So Amazing About Grace" by Philip Yancey:

"At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in God’s hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy” (page 93)

Humanly speaking, forgiveness is hard for us. We are angry. We are hurt. We are sad. We want to see that other person suffer in our way, and in our timing, but as Yancey noted, forgiveness is really an act of faith in a loving God.

Are we intrigued? Is this a concept that we think we already know about? Are we ready to embark on a study that may change the way we think about forgiveness? I hope that you'll join me next time.