Day Seven: Forgive by Working with the Lord
The literal meaning of God's Word is sometimes rather harsh. The parable of the unforgiving servant is an example. The king in this story was very forgiving of a huge debt, but when the servant did not forgive his fellow servant a small debt, the king turned the unforgiving servant over to the torturers. (Matt. 18:21-35)
The Lord would never cause anyone pain, or ever want anyone to be tortured. But the warning is real because we can torture ourselves. The way we torture ourselves is through resentment. If we are unwilling to forgive, we turn ourselves over to the torturers. Spiritually speaking, feelings of resentment are like torturers. They deprive us of sleep. They can lead to physical illness such as high blood pressure or ulcers. When we try to ignore our feelings of resentment it can seem as if they simply will not go away. The reason these feelings are so persistent is that these feelings actually flow into us from outside. They flow in from hell. It is helpful to recognize that all negative feelings such as victim-hood, low self-esteem and shame flow into our emotions from the same source. Recognizing that these emotions are not a part of us is the first step in letting go.
Changing on the inside — changing our patterns of thinking and feeling — is something we need to do with the Lord's help. Letting go of resentment is a huge task, partly because of the origin of this feeling. We can't do it without the Lord's help, because only Divine power can shut off the feelings of resentment that hell keeps putting in our lives. Only the Lord can forgive sins. (Luke 5:24)
At the same time, the Lord can't lift our resentment from us without our cooperation. We have to do our part and work with the Lord in order for Him to make a change in us, because real change can only happen through our free choice and effort. Otherwise it is not a change in our hearts.
One of the ways we cooperate with the Lord as He works to forgive us, is for us to forgive others. It seems like a paradox. Only the Lord can forgive sins, yet He asks us to forgive each other. But as we engage in the process of forgiveness and healing, we will come to see when we forgive each other it is not our own work but the Lord's work within us. The work of forgiving others is the work of putting them in the Lord's hands and realizing that any good effect we have on others is really the Lord bringing about a change in the person, using us as his instruments.
"The need for us to purify ourselves from evil, and not to wait for the Lord to do it without our participation, is like a servant coming in with his face and clothes covered in soot and dung, approaching his master, and saying, "Lord, wash me." Surely his master would tell him, "You foolish servant! What are you saying? Look, there is the water, the soap and a towel. Don't you have hands? Don't they work? Wash yourself!" The Lord God is going to say, "The means of being purified come from me. Your willingness and your power come from me. Therefore use these gifts and endowments of mine as your own and you will be purified." (True Christianity 331)
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