Today I am thankful for forgiveness. I have been on three sides of forgiveness today. I have extended forgiveness when it was asked of me, I have asked for and received forgiveness, and I have watched forgiveness on display in relationships around me. What a beautiful thing. It is life-changing.
Webster’s Dictionary defines forgiveness as “giving up resentment of or claim to requital for ” or b: “to grant relief from payment of ” or “to cease to feel resentment against (an offender) : pardon “.
When I think of forgiveness, I think of clean slates, fresh starts, and new beginnings. I think of freedom, fearlessness, and no condemnation.
Colossians 3:12-17 is one of my favorite calls to forgiveness in Scripture. It reads, “12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
It is such a wonderful, rich passage. For today, I notice that in Colossians Paul calls us to forgive as Jesus Christ forgave us. Completely. Sacrificially. Without any thought to who we were/are. Without hesitation (I am particularly weak here). It is so beautiful to see this type of forgiveness. When we forgive like this we remember that life is not about us. We remember that holding onto offenses doesn’t bring life. We remember how great our offenses have been and how much we have been forgiven.
So, today I am thankful for beautiful, redemptive, complete, live-giving forgiveness! May I endeavor to humble myself to regularly and completely ask for and grant forgiveness.
