Your forgiveness towards others will make you quickly understand where you are in your walk with God. If for instance, someone wronged you in some way and you have no desire to forgive them whatsoever, you know your walk with God needs help. If there’s no forgiveness in your life you’re acting like a hypocrite knowing that through Jesus God forgives us. Not forgiving someone will lead to bitterness, out of bitterness comes hatred, hatred comes anger and then vengeance. If you’ve forgiven someone and it’s still something that you can’t think of without hate, anger, bitterness, or retaliation, then your heart wasn’t right the first time you’ve forgiven your trespasser. In Genesis 50:15-22 we read that Joseph’s brothers didn’t know the meaning of forgiveness. In verse 16 they send a messenger to Joseph because they fear that he hasn’t yet forgiven them and fear for the lives. But Joseph being Christlike, as we should all strive to be, forgave them years ago. In verse 21 Joseph says “ Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.” You see the 3 things Joseph does? He nourishes, comfort, and speaks kindly. Can we do the same after someone wrongs us?


To truly forgive someone is easier said than done. God‘s not asking you to forget the wrong neither do you, he’s telling you to move forward. There’s no dwelling on the incident,no bringing it back up, there’s no telling others. Forgive, move forward with God, not with pride. Ephesians 4:30-32 “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”


“ To forgive is to shoot an arrow so high and so far that it cannot be retrieved.”


Below is a story I heard and cant get out of my mind. This defines Faith and Forgiveness.

“In 1977, two Chinese girls, Chiu-Chin-Hsiu and Ho-Hsiu-Tzu, were captured by the Chinese government, along with their pastor, for believing in Christ. Although mocked by the government for believing in a God which they could not see, the two girls refused to renounce their faith and were thus sentenced to death for their beliefs.

However, while the two girls remained strong in their faith, their pastor hesitated as he was tempted by the Chinese. The Chinese offered him release if he would agree to shoot the two girls. And, desirous of his own life, the pastor agreed.

On the day of their execution, the girls were led out to the courtyard where they were going to be shot. A bystander was reported on that day to have said that their faces were pale, “but beautiful beyond belief; infinitely sad but sweet.” They were brought to stand in front of their pastor, who held a revolver in their hands. Looking at their pastor, the two girls whispered to each other, bowed once, and then spoke these words:

Before you shoot us, we wish to thank you heartily for what you have meant to us. You baptized us, you taught us the ways of eternal life, you gave us holy communion with the same hand in which you now hold the gun. You also taught us that Christians are sometimes weak and commit terrible sins, but they can be forgiven again. When you regret what you are about to do to us, do not despair like Judas, but repent like Peter. God bless you, and remember that our last thought was not one of indignation against your failure. Everyone passes through hours of darkness. May God reward you for all the good you have done to us. We die with gratitude.

The words were not enough, however, to change their pastor’s course. He shot both of them as they silently waited in order to gain his freedom. But as soon as he had executed them, the Communist guards grabbed him as well and proceeded to put him up against the wall for execution. They had lied when they had promised him his life. And in contrast to the faithful and silent girls, their pastor died screaming”