“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not
condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke
6:37).
“Don't judge.
Don't condemn. Forgive, and you will be forgiven,” the Word instructs.
Withholding forgiveness is judgment. My anger, and even my hurt, do not give me
permission to judge. It certainly does not give me permission to condemn by
refusing to forgive. When I am devastated by
someone's action, I have a choice what to do with the disillusionment and hurt.
I can choose to forgive, or I can allow that hurt to take root in my heart. If a
choose not to forgive, bitterness will eventually define everything about me,
and my life will be in its control. In judging and condemning someone else, I
will have blocked my own forgiveness. I will not only have condemned someone
else. I will have condemned myself. I will be in bondage to my own painful
bitterness.
The Holy Spirit
offers freedom from that bondage. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom,” Paul writes (2 Corinthians 3:17). God does not want me in bondage to
hurt or bitterness. That bitterness can become my own failure. Forgiveness can
set me free. I have the freedom to choose forgiveness, and I have the power to
forgive. God asks me to give my very best, and that will not happen if there is
judgment, hurt, and unforgiveness. My very best is to allow His love to flow
through me, and to intentionally forgive with His love no matter how I feel. His
love will eventually change my hard bitter heart into one that is pliable in His
hands. Disillusionment and hurt will dissolve, and I will be free from its
bondage.
What about you? Are
you tired of the bitterness that arises when another person, either
intentionally or unintentionally, hurts you? Choose to let the bitterness go.
Make a decision to forgive. Look to Christ as your perfect sacrifice because no
one else can be that for you. Realize that no one is perfect, and admit that
because of your unforgiveness you have also failed. The Lord “will give you a
new heart, and put a new spirit in you, and will remove from you your heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Instead of a hard bitter
heart of unforgiveness, you can have a heart of flesh that loves with His love.
You will be free to love instead of judge or condemn. You will be abundantly
free.
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