Perhaps all of us experienced being hurt. Physically or emotionally, it caused us a lot of pains in our hearts. The most painful feeling were caused not by our enemies, but by our friends and our love ones. Sometimes, its our fault why we suffer such pains. But what if we are not the reason? What if the pain was caused by our dear friends or love ones?
The fact that they are dear to us brings additional insult to the injury. And while we are thinking what we have done wrong, suddenly an invisible force coming from within our hearts slowly emerges. That force is a feeling of retaliation. Loosing our control, we suddenly burst into anger and confront whoever caused us this feeling. It seems that we can’t fight this feeling of anger, so strong that even we are a believer and a Christian, it is impossible to stop it from happening.
Loosing our control, we also lost everything that is instilled in our hearts and minds. That is, including every Words of the Scripture that gave us faith to overcome everything in this cruel world. Have we lost our temper, we begun to think evil especially against whom we think did us wrong. As we think evil, it blocks every manifestation of goodness in ourselves. Then we begun to sin against our selves. Why to ourselves? The reason is because as a Christian, we made a covenant that we can be angry and loose our temper but we can not let the sun go down upon our wrath, because wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous. Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Pro 27:4 Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous;
Who else can we sin against? If we let loose the anger in our hearts, we can say or do something bad. The damage is inevitable, considering we are returning the hurt we felt to someone who caused it to us. This is not the message of love that Jesus taught us.
Jesus epitomizes a perfect example of what we should act against someone who did us wrong. It was to this that God called us, for Christ himself suffered for us and left us an example, so that we would follow in His steps. When Christ was insulted, He did not answer back with an insult. When Christ suffered, He did not threaten, but placed His hopes in God, the righteous Judge. 1Pe 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 1Pe 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
Sometimes, the pain we feel is too unbearable to us that not even the Words of God can stop us. This is true in many cases. Let me tell you a story about a preacher named Steve. Steve had been a preacher of the Gospel for almost 30 years of his life. He spent his youth serving God and his church happily and contented. God had been good to Steve because he was blessed to have a beautiful wife and three loving and intelligent kids. Not only did he have a happy family, Steve also managed to have a growing business in a public market.
Living peacefully all the days of his life, Steve benevolently serve God and generously helped the church and its members in whatever way he can, be it financially and spiritually. But this is not the end of the story. Steve has a sibling named Laura. Laura is also a business woman like Steve and they both have a retail store in the market. For some unknown reasons, their relationship as brother and sister suddenly became sour. There were times that Steve, can be seen shouting at his sister, which is older than him. And in return, Laura, being older can not afford to be humble to his brother.
The quarrel between Steve and Laura turned worst. It is very unimaginable to see that a preacher of the Gospel like Steve even threaten to sue her older sister. Their mother, Susana is turning eighty years old this year and for her, it is very painful to see them rifting apart. Every night, their mother cries and ask them to settle their differences. But Steve and Laura’s anger became outrageous. One day, their mother went to the market to buy some things and decided to go to their shops. Susana was shocked to see that Steve and Laura were having an argument again. Immediately, Susana tried to stop them until she fell on the ground. She suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the nearest hospital. She was declared dead on arrival. Steve and Laura cried passionately. It’s too late. End of the story.
If only they have listened to their mother, she could have been alive. If only Steve practiced what He had been preaching for 30 years, this thing could not happen. If only Steve remembered Jesus Christ’s words on the cross, “”Forgive them, Father! They don’t know what they are doing,” then probably his mother will still be alive today.
Its very hard to forgive when the pain is too deep. There are many lessons in the Bible about love. Forgiveness is an act of love, for without love, you can never forgive. Maybe this is what Steve lost. He lost the love for her sister. Sometimes, we are like Steve. We forget the messages of the cross and live according to the pains in our hearts. Christ wants us to love our enemies. Forgive and forget everything that they have done wrong to us. If we learn to forgive, God will also forgive us, otherwise, if we will not forgive, God will not forgive us also. Mat 6:15 But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.
The message of the Bible is clear to us. God wants us to settle our differences and achieve a perfect relationship with others. Through love and forgiveness, we can learn to humble ourselves to others. When we pray, say “Lord, inspire us and teach us to forgive, so that others will also forgive us.”
