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One Powerful Action

  
              If I was not familiar with the word of God, I would be shocked by some of the events within it. 
For example, in one part, God tells a man to take a wife, knowing that she would be unfaithful to him.  The man does so and, predictably, she runs away to live with another man.  In fact, she not only does that, but then prostitutes herself to anyone who will have her.  God then tells the man to find his wife and beg her to come back home.  Then, adding insult to injury, before she can leave, he must also pay for her release.
                Some of you recognize that this is the story of God’s prophet Hosea.  He was told to do these things so that his life would be a parable to teach God’s people about their spiritual unfaithfulness and the extent of God’s love.  While that is the main point, these scriptures also teach us some very important truths about forgiveness in general.
                1.  We are never told that to forgive, we must forget.  Hosea knows and remembers exactly what his wife did, yet he forgives her anyway.  “Forgive and forget” does not mean “Do not remember”.  In fact, I would argue that Biblical forgiveness requires us to remember.  If we could forget, what would there be to forgive?  The power of forgiveness is found in the fact that, though we remember, we choose to let go of the hurt.
                2.  Forgiveness does not require that others ask for it.  Did you notice that though he was the innocent party, it was Hosea who took the first step?  There is no indication that his wife asked for, or even wanted forgiveness, but he offered it anyway.  If difficult situations are to be resolved, or at least defused, someone must create a path to a better future.  Maybe that someone needs to be you, even if you did not cause the problem in the first place.  If you are waiting for others to ask for forgiveness, you may be waiting a long, long time.
                3.  Forgiveness hinges on one thing alone:  That we have been forgiven.  This is the point of Jesus’ parable of “The Unmerciful Servant” (Matthew 18:21-35).  A man, who owes more money than the national debt, begs a king for mercy.  The king decides to be kind and he cancels the man’s debt.  Then that man goes out and finds someone who owes him a few months rent and demands payment in full.   When the king hears about this, he calls the man in, reinstates his entire debt and has him thrown in jail.  The point:  Those who have been forgiven had better be quick to forgive others. 
Having said all that, I understand that discussing forgiveness is easier than applying it.  As C.S. Lewis said, “Everyone says that forgiveness is a good idea, until they have someone to forgive”.  On the other hand, as hard as it can be, forgiving is good for us.  Lewis Smedes told the truth when he said, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and find out that the prisoner was you”.
                So, can you forgive those who have hurt you?  Can you let it go?  Can you drop the anger, the grudges and the score keeping?  We must not condone the wrong that others have done, but neither should we allow those things to continue to harm us.
               We cannot change what has happened, but, by forgiving, we can change how the story ends.

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