When bad things happen to good people...In Bible Study on Wednesday night, we got into a discussion on dealing with the difficult people in our lives. When someone hurts us deeply, how do we respond? We had some great discussion on this topic, including the idea that forgiving doesn't mean we condone the action that hurt us. We're simply giving it to God so that our spirit can be freed from the weight of our pain. However, if we don't choose to forgive, what does the Bible say will happen? This led to the recommendation of a book that Martha Sutton has read.
Forgive and Forget... Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve is a book by Lewis B. Smedes. Here are a few of the quotes from the book:
To forgive we reverse the flow of seemingly irreversible history...of our own history...of our private painful history. We reverse the flow of pain that began in the past when someone hurt us, a flow that filters into our present to wound our memory and poison our future. We heal ourselves when we perform a miracle that hardly anyone notices. We do it silently, no one can record our miracle on tape. We do it invisibly, no one can record our miracle on film.
We do it freely, no one can ever trick us into forgiving someone.
When we forgive we ride the crest of loves cosmic wave; we walk in stride with God, and we heal the hurt we never deserved.
But why is Jesus so tough on us? He is tough because the incongruity of sinners refusing to forgive sinners boggles God's mind. He cannot cope with it; there is no honest way to put up with it. So he says: if you want forgiving from God and you cannot forgive someone who needs a little forgiving from you, forget about the forgiveness you want. Take away the eloquence of King James English and you get Jesus saying something like this: if you refuse to forgive other people when you expect to be forgiven, you can go to hell.
We do it freely, no one can ever trick us into forgiving someone.
When we forgive we ride the crest of loves cosmic wave; we walk in stride with God, and we heal the hurt we never deserved.
But why is Jesus so tough on us? He is tough because the incongruity of sinners refusing to forgive sinners boggles God's mind. He cannot cope with it; there is no honest way to put up with it. So he says: if you want forgiving from God and you cannot forgive someone who needs a little forgiving from you, forget about the forgiveness you want. Take away the eloquence of King James English and you get Jesus saying something like this: if you refuse to forgive other people when you expect to be forgiven, you can go to hell.
Several of the ladies were interested in taking a look at this book. Hopefully this will give you more insight into what the book is about and help you decide if it's an investment you may want to make.
Thanks, Martha!
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