Unforgiveness and the Power of PardonSample

Releasing the Prisoner: You

Forgiveness is not optional; it's essential. Vertical and horizontal forgiveness are inseparable—two sides of the same coin. As Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).

In the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus described what would happen should we choose not to forgive: "[The servant's] master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him" (Matthew 18:34).

The word torture carries with it the idea of extreme mental anguish. There is no worse prison than a heart that refuses to extend forgiveness to others. Your thoughts eat away at you. Your life is filled with stress and anxiety. You've been handed over to the torturers and become enslaved to your own unforgiveness. But forgiveness sets you free.

Perhaps the best real-life example of this comes from Corrie ten Boom. A couple years after World War II ended, she met a man who had been a guard at the very concentration camp she was imprisoned in for hiding Jews in her home. He had since repented of what he had done and stood before her seeking forgiveness. She wrote:

I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart.... "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling." And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. "I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!" For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.

As Lewis B. Smedes wrote, "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." God loves you so much; He wants to spare you the prison of unforgiveness. By choosing to forgive from your heart in the same manner you have been forgiven, you can experience the freedom, peace, and joy that comes only by letting go of the offenses of others.

So I pray you would begin dismantling the walls of unforgiveness around you, one brick at a time. Make the choice today to lean into the Lord, reach out to others, and get involved in Heaven's business of forgiveness.

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