Forgiveness

I think it was CSLewis who said the hardest lesson for Christians was not love of neighbor or even self control in sexual matters, but forgiving someone who wronged you.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold"...a famous line said by a Startrek character who is luceferic: proud and quotes Satan of Paradise Lost: Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven, and later he spits at his enemies in hate as he died.

I just retold the story of Gunnar's Daughter to my granddaughter: (a tale of Norway when Christianity was not yet the religion) and the sad story of her revenge on a man who scorned her. He turned Christian but she could not let her hate go...

I struggle with this myself, so I will link to some information on forgiveness:

David Wilkerson: How Important is it to forgive and bless one's enemies.

if we refuse to forgive the hurts done to us, we have to face these consequences:

1. We’ll become guiltier than the person who inflicted our wound.
2. God’s mercy and grace toward us will be shut off. Then, as things begin to go wrong in our lives, we won’t understand them, because we’ll be in disobedience.
3. Our persecutor’s vexations against us will continue to rob us of peace. He’ll become the victor, succeeding in giving us a permanent wound.
4. Because Satan succeeds in driving us to thoughts of revenge, he’ll be able to lead us into deadlier sins. And we’ll commit transgressions far worse than these.

The writer of Proverbs advises, “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression” (Proverbs 19:11). In other words, we’re to do nothing until our anger has subsided. We’re never to make a decision or follow through with any action while we are still angry.

We bring glory to our heavenly Father whenever we overlook hurts and forgive the sins done to us. To do so builds character in us. When we forgive as God forgives, he brings us into a revelation of favor and blessing we have never known.

Jesus commands us to love those that have made themselves our enemies by doing three things:
1. We are to bless them
2. We are to do good to them
3. We are to pray for them

In Matthew 5:44 Jesus says, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”