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PROGRAM D-7728
Looking for the perfect gift this Christmas? I have a suggestion. How about giving forgiveness?
Are you harboring something in your heart against someone? Have you allowed a root of bitterness to grow in the soil of your soul because someone has hurt you? Don’t you think it would be a great Christmas if you decided to give up that resentment and offer forgiveness?
Perhaps they have never asked you to forgive them. That does indeed require a very special gift of forgiveness from you. But here’s the thing—withholding forgiveness causes you far more harm than it does the other person. It’s like taking rat poison and expecting the rat to die. So, in effect, giving forgiveness to someone else is a very wonderful gift that you give yourself.
Jesus taught us that we will be forgiven in the measure that we are willing to forgive. Aren’t you so glad that you have received his free gift of forgiveness? Think of what that cost Jesus—to pay the price for your sins so you could be forgiven. No greater price has ever been paid—no greater gift has ever been offered.
In view of the forgiveness you have received, and in obedience to Jesus, your gift of forgiveness to someone this Christmas could be the turning of a page in your life, a new beginning as you are set free from the pain and burden of unforgiveness.
What makes forgiveness so difficult is that it seems unfair, especially if the other person has not asked for forgiveness. But remember this—God is still in control and he will always have the last word. He has promised that someday all wrongs will be made right, so if you are willing to give forgiveness this Christmas to someone who has wronged you, you can be sure that God will see that you have taken them off your hook—so to speak—and now they are on God’s hook.
This is a gift that cannot be wrapped and placed under your tree, but perhaps it’s a gift you put in writing, or email, or a phone call, or over coffee. Or it may not be possible to express your willingness to forgive because you no longer have any contact with them. It is simply between you and God. But whatever form it takes, offering forgiveness is the pathway to freedom for you, and it could be that a relationship is renewed or a life is changed because you gave the gift of forgiveness.
