Reading: Forgiveness - Session 3

Forgiveness Session 3
By Kristine Koetje-Balder

WHAT ARE SOME POSSIBLE REASONS SO DIFFICULT TO FORGIVE:
1.  Individuals who have difficulty forgiving a spouse for a certain wrong may have the same shortcomings existing within themselves.
2.  Non-forgivers generally do not have healthy self-esteem
3.  In terms of forgiveness, a person may have had a lack of parental modeling
4.  Excessive pride creates the feeling of superiority, that others are below us and not worthy of our forgiveness.

WHAT ARE SOME POSSIBLE REASONS SO DIFFICULT TO FORGIVE:
5.  Unrealistic expectations - Christians have a difficult time forgiving unless they surrender the high expectations that others should be perfect.
6.  To forgive another person is an unfamiliar, frightening experience and thus fear is a major barrier. 
7.  Forgiveness often requires a supernatural action (cross of Christ).

SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Marriages have a formidable adversary. 1 Peter 5:8 states, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The devil understands the power of forgiveness. He had the opportunity to behold the glory of God and the kingdom of heaven. He has been doomed to Hell and is mad and desires us to share his fate. Satan is employed to steal, kill, and destroy.  Unforgiveness opens the door for Satan to hold us back and devour us.

Spiritual Warfare
Paul speaks about spiritual warfare and enlists the word "stronghold” to define the spiritual fortresses wherein Satan and his legions hide and are protected. These fortresses exist in the thought patterns and ideas that govern individuals and marriages. Paul defines a stronghold as... speculations, a lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 3:5). A demonic stronghold is any type of thinking that exalts itself above the knowledge of God, thereby giving the devil a secure place of influence in an individual's thought life.

Spiritual Warfare
When someone is hurt emotionally, there can be an emotional response of anger, fear, and guilt. There is nothing wrong with these feelings in themselves; just as physical pain, they will tell us that we are hurt. But when the hurt is unhealed and unforgiven, the emotions can then turn to hatred, resentment, and unforgiveness. This becomes a matter of the human spirit. Whether justified or not, these emotions then can become sins and may open doors or give ground to evil spirits. The evil spirits, like parasites, attach themselves in the vortex of the memory that contains these sins.

 
YOUR HURTS
Satan will use every opportunity to bring old wounds to mind, as well as the people, events, and circumstances that caused them. Satan would like to ensure that your heart remains hardened with anger and bitterness. Shackled through unforgiveness.

SATAN'S IMPRINT
Satan is selfish and prideful; when we are unforgiving we act like him. Unforgiveness is laced with pride---which cost the devil the Kingdom of Heaven. Loosen Satan's grip and forgive.

SATAN'S CONQUEST
He would like to redefine how you think about God, about yourself, about others, even about those people who truly love you and intend only good for you. He wants you fixated and patterned in your thinking so that few things would seem more dear or desirable to you than paying them back or getting your revenge. He wants you sobbing.....or better, yet, just seething, the kind of emotion that does not come out in crying and visible reactions but instead just cooks inside of you where the heat has no place to escape, where the tears pool up and stagnate, creating a petri dish of toxic emotions that you're forced to keep breathing. He wants you baking in unforgiveness until your spiritual life is hard and crisp around the edges. Lifeless.  Comatose. Unforgiveness puts us in prime position for demonic influence and activity to take advantage of us.  (Priscilla Shirer, Fervent)

 
SATAN'S DEFEAT - Forgiveness.
Jesus wants you free. Genuine freedom and renewed fervency are waiting for you on the other side of forgiveness. And the forgiveness you don't have any desire to give right now can be amazingly enabled through prayer. Get ready with pieces of information from the Holy Spirit in prayer and the scripture and as they come together in agreement there will be the power for forgiveness. Satan has been banking on keeping these solutions hidden from you and convincing you that anger and bitterness are the most productive, protective ways of managing the situation. When truly, in honest prayer, conducted with an open heart and an open copy of God's word, will be sure to present you with truth.

TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD:
Ephesians: 4-31-32  "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” 

Hebrews: 12:14-15, "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.

TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD:
Mark 11:25, "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.”

Matthew 5:44-45, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.