Forgiveness

Forgiveness means to renounce anger or resentment against, to absolve, to cancel all of the indebtedness that we have accumulated over the years against other persons, to set them free because in setting them free, we set ourselves free. To forgive, like the forward in a book, it means that which comes before. Forgive means to give up something before something else can happen. It’s a powerful concept. It becomes such a freeing mechanism of the mind.

• Forgiveness is for us. Forgiveness is a feeling.

Our higher self is often imprisoned by our lower nature; this serious problem must be solved to keep moving higher. But through understanding and practicing forgiveness, we can release this inner splendor. Forgiveness is an internal activity in one’s mind where the mind sets itself free from a faulty or strangling attitude so that something else can happen, something that could not happen until after the forgiveness takes place.

Matthew 18:22 states:

• When Peter asked if forgiving someone seven times was sufficient, Jesus replied “not seven times, but seventy-seven times”. (Some translations say “seventy times seven” which would be 490 times) The point is Jesus was teaching that true forgiveness doesn’t keep a running tally or have a cutoff point. It’s about the heart attitude of continual readiness to forgive, not about literally counting to 77 or 490 and then stopping.

And Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

• Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.

Now, if you’ve never chosen how, you feel but have let negative emotions choose you, then it will at first be difficult. But so rewarding, when one begins to choose what one will feel. And one of the first choices that we really need to make is the choice of forgiveness, of forgiving ourselves first. For all the mistakes that we have made, for all the wrong attitudes that we have had, for our present state of mind. And we can forgive ourselves by realizing that we really have done the very best we possibly could under the circumstances that existed up to the present moment. Believing that we ourselves were living our lives only under our own power, how could we have done better?

And then, of course, we must forgive other persons. If we wish to experience the miracle that we seek, forgiveness of others is an absolute requirement. Forgiveness means giving up all the consequences of an experience so that you walk away from it unharmed and free.

Clara Barton, the founder of the nursing profession, never was known to hold a grudge against anyone. One time a friend recalled of her a cruel thing that happened to her some years previously. But Clara seemed not to remember the incident. And the friend said, well, don’t you remember the great wrong that was done to you:

• She said, no, no, no, no, I distinctly remember forgetting it. I distinctly remember forgiving them.

And if you’ve harmed someone, go to that person and make amends because this too is an act in the direction of forgiveness.

Then as we set ourselves and others free, we gain the amazing inner conviction that our personal goals are achievable, that our goals are nothing more than the dreams that God has placed in our heart, and that God has empowered us to experience everything that our hearts seek. We could not seek our good unless it was attainable.

• Forgiveness is the freedom that comes when we relieve our concepts of our experiences.

Forgiveness