A Heart that Forgives
Explore this quick read about the importance of having a forgiving heart.
FAITH
Dani Fielder
9/9/20262 min read
It is important that we are able to forgive our brothers and sisters, not only for their benefit, but for our own. We must free ourselves from unforgiveness, even if the other person does not want to free themselves because according to Matthew 5:26 the Lord cannot receive our gifts if our heart is not right. Matthew 5:25-26 says, “Settle matters quickly with your adversary (...). Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny” (NIV). This means that we must go to our brothers and sisters that we have a problem with and settle our disputes completely.
More importantly, we must know how to forgive with our hearts, not just our mouths. We cannot just say sorry or accept an apology verbally, but have our heart hardened towards that person. We must be able to forgive completely just like our Father forgave us. We cannot act like the unmerciful servant in Jesus’ parable. In the parable, there was a servant that owed a large debt to his master, but because the servant begged for patience and mercy, the master forgave him. That same servent, however, was ruthless and unforgiving when his servant owed him money. When the first servant’s master heard of this, he was outraged and decided to hand him to the jailers to be tortured (Matthew 18: 21-35). Our Father does not want us to be like the merciless servant. He wants us to be forgiving. Jesus used this parable to demonstrate how our heavenly Father will treat us if we do not forgive our brothers and sisters. Even if someone was to sin against another continuously, Jesus says we should forgive them seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22). If we cannot forgive our brother or sister with our heart, neither will our Father in Heaven be able to forgive us.
So we must know how to go to our brothers or sisters when they have sinned against us, and forgive them with our hearts, not just our mouth. This is something we all must examine ourselves on. We must each ask questions like the following: Do I have unforgiveness in my heart? Could unforgiveness be blocking my blessings?