Did you find it in the bible or is it something that someone told you? A lot of the Christian church today would have you believe that if you don’t have a warm fuzzy feeling toward someone who hurt you or did you wrong that you have unforgiveness in your life and God is under no obligation to help you in any way. That is just not in the bible – Jesus never rejected anyone - not even someone who hadn’t forgiven someone in their past. We cannot find this doctrine - of God not being able to move if you have not forgiven everyone - in the epistles either. I have even heard it said that if you have not forgiven everyone you cannot pray for people because God won’t hear and will not move on your behalf. That is crazy – show me that in the New Testament.

Does the bible tell us that we should forgive people? Absolutely!! But it does not connect your performance and whether you have forgiven everyone to the power of God moving on your behalf. The unfortunate thing is that this kind of doctrine makes your faith “me” focused instead of Jesus focused. When faith isn’t working as we had expected, and we believe that we are limiting God's power to move in our lives, instead of looking unto the “author and finisher of our faith,” Jesus,  (Heb 12:2) - we look at ourselves. And instead of meditating on the promises of God and how He has delivered us – we analyze every aspect of our life trying to find any hidden sin or unforgiveness. Jesus said, “every sin and blasphemy of men will be forgiven men…” in Matt 12:31.  Did you see what that said?  It said, “every sin.”  Yet we make people who are struggling with not having the “warm fuzzy” towards someone out to be some greater sinner than anyone else.

Forgiveness is a choice. You choose to forgive someone. Just like love – love is a choice, you choose to love someone. I have chosen to love someone even when they weren’t lovable and I had no feeling of love toward them. Love is not an emotion, it is a choice. Forgiveness works the same way – when you choose to forgive someone you don’t have to have a “warm fuzzy” feeling on the inside of you to know that you have forgiven them - it is a choice. All of the Christians I know have made the choice to forgive, but because they don’t always want to be around the person whom they made the choice to forgive, someone will tell them they haven’t really forgiven. So what happens? They become self focused trying to “feel” like they have forgiven, instead of Jesus focused. Anytime you look to your performance as the prerequisite for the power of God to move you will get caught in the trap of "works-righteousness."

“Works-righteousness” is when you try to work and do everything right, and if you do, then God will do what you ask. That is Old Testament type thinking, it ignores the completeness of what Jesus did on the cross, and it is not faith!  The name of Jesus and faith in the name of Jesus is all that is necessary to have the power of God move in your life. Jesus wants us to depend on Him for everything even the ability to forgive someone. When Jesus told His disciples that they are to always forgive – even an infinite amount of times – the disciples said “Lord increase our faith.” Faith is not a feeling – faith is a decision. Forgiveness is not a feeling it is a decision. Make a decision that Jesus is enough, and He is greater than your areas of weakness, even when you don’t feel like forgiving someone. What Jesus did on the cross is so complete that resting in that is all that is needed to get the power of God moving on your behalf.

I pray that you have been blessed by these updates from the ministry. The latest video installment of Grace Thoughts is posted here. In it I talk a little more about unforgiveness and the power of God. Your gifts into the ministry make these updates possible and help us to continue to bring you fresh insight into the Word of God. We need your help to continue.  If you would consider helping us with a financial gift it would go a long way to helping us continue.  You can go to the donate page on the web site where you can give a onetime gift or a monthly donation. Thank you for your giving it really makes a difference!

You are a blessing,
John