My life, my dominion

Before you skip this entry i would just like to thank all the people who have read my blog. Also I hope that you might take some time to read this post. I'ver realised that some of the stuff i post that isn't about me doesn't really apply or rather isn't easily understood by everyone so now i'll try to like write in like two segments, one that everyone can read and understand and one where those who would like to read on can.

FOr those who would like a more general idea just skip to the portion on "HOW TO FORGIVE TODAY?"

So on we go. Today we are still dealing with forgiveness.
The passage for to day is Matthew 18 : 21-35

In it is the parable of the unmerciful servant. Basically, we have one servant who owes the king or master a few million pounds or 10,000 talents which is about 750,000 pounds of silver. The king is about to throw his family and him in prison before selling them of (each slave fetches only a paltry 30 pieces of silver) to off set the. The servant pleads with the king who pities him and cancels the debt. But the servant in turn, throws another servant in jail for owing a few dollars. The king is furious and ultimately sells the first servant and his family away.

SO we see the transition of the servant from debtor to creditor to prisoner.

We first see the definition of Forgiveness:
It is the concious choice to give up the right to punish someone who has hurt you.
In this case, the king forfeit his right to punish the slave and to write off the debt. Even though he knew that selling the slave would at least gain back some of the money, he decided to let the slave and his family off.

SO what consists of exercising forgiveness?

a) Admission of Guilt: Forgiveness is a result of true guilt. Just as in courts one can never really forgive unless one sees that the other perons is repentant. We can all forgive someone if it is plain to see that that person has been wronged or if that person is genuine in asking for forgiveness which leads us to our next aspect. The servant was quick to realise that he had owed the king too much that he would never be able to pay.

b) Breaking of PRide: One must be mournful and be willing to ask for forgiveness. In many cases we just quickly say sorry and hope the matter is settled. FOr christians, how many times have we prayed for God to just forgive us of all the sins that we have committed hoping that he will just summarise everything and then forgive you. NO we ourselves must identify each mistake we make and humbly ask for forgiveness.
The servant was humble enough to beg the king for forgiveness.

c) Acceptance of pity: When we pity others, we are exercising the ability to see that the person is in turmoil especially when they are sincere in seeking forgiveness. God had pity on us that is why he sent jesus down. As humans we often let pride get in the way and we refuse te pity of others. THis often translates to us refusing God's pity of our pathetic situation as sinners, although we accept that Jesus died for us, we do not realise that many a time we reject God's pity and the fact that we are in need of his pity. TO accept other's pity is to put ourselves at their mercy. The servant was seeking the pity of the king and likewise we hshould seek God's pity and his forgiveness.

d) Exercising of choice: When forgiving we are exercising the choice whether to punish or to be merciful to those who have hurt us. Often we think only of revenge and how to hurt them back be it emotionally, physically or even spiritually. We often hear that to forgive is to forget. That is virtually impossible, we will always remember how others crossed our path and how we want to get back at them. That's where choice comes in, when we are wronged, we exercise the choice not to use past incidents against them but to only deal with the current situation. So although the slate is not cleaned, we choose to ignore it. in the servant's case the king chose to forget about the debt.

SO after all that is said and done, how do we forgive in today's context.

Let us first examine what happens when someone wrongs us.
What happens is that we usually build up a rage, and in that rage we start recounting all the past wrongs that person has committed and in the end we often mete out a punishment that is unwarranted.
THis happens everywhere and is most evident in church, and be warned for this is condemned by God.
We often use spiritual and emotional black mail to get back at each other. I'm sure that for those attached or who ahve argued with good friends, emotional black mail by digging up the past is one common strategy that we all use.

Why is this so? THis is because when we are wronged we tend to focus on the hurt/debt owed us.When we focus on that we start to only see the unfairness and in the end we just want to strike back.

What God and what we should be focussing on is the PITY.
God saw our pathetic sinful state and forgave us based in that. Unlike us where the punishment often out strips the crime, God's punishment (or lack of one) is so much less than the great sin and hurt that we have forced upon his name. When we focus on pitying the transgressor, we can then find the strength to see how much we ourselves have been forgiven in our time.

This was however something that the servant failed to see when he strangled the fellow servant who owed a few dollars.

As a result, the king removed the forgiveness and sold the slave. Thankfully, God is merciful and does not remove our salvation if we fail to forgive. But we doe lose the daily sense of fellowship and cleansing that accompanies us when we forgive others, just like how adam and eve lost God's fellowship when they sinned. And if we cannot forgive others as God has forgiven us, then God himself will be slow in his forgiving too.

Even not forgiving is a punishment to us in itself. By not forgiving, we become obsessed with teh wrongdoing, the revenge. We are imprisoned in turmoil brought about by someone else and God does not lift this burden off.

As it is written in Matt 6:14-15 "FOr if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

"For in killing we are most like beasts
For in judging we are most like men
For in forgiving, we are most like God."
-Anon-

Hope this speaks to you.