If you do not forgive men their sins,
your Father will not forgive your sins.
—Matthew 6:15
General James Oglethorpe was infuriated by an abrasive comment made by one of his comrades. When he later apologized and asked forgiveness, Oglethorpe snapped, “I never forgive!” “Then I hope,” said his friend John Wesley, “that you never sin.”
Where would you stand with God if he used the same measure in forgiving you that you use in forgiving others?
Forgiving a person who has hurt you is difficult. Is there a shortcut to getting there? Yes.
Here it is: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). You will bury your unforgiving spirit the moment you embrace the last seven words of that sentence.
Forgiveness may not change the forgiven,
but it profoundly changes the forgiver.