10-32am
In 2001, I had a life-changing event happen to me. Bruce Wilkinson had come to South Africa and was holding a seminar in Johannesburg over a few nights. Our church connected via satellite and each evening for 4 nights. Bruce talked through different key 
relationships in life – husband/wife, brother/sister, children/parents. Each evening, we were challenged regarding these relationships. I didn’t know where it was going, but all I thought was that I was scoring high in my family relationships. UNTIL, he asked if we, as adults, had any resentment towards our parents? That was when I started to squirm a bit in my chair. Now it was becoming uncomfortable. It culminated in him asking anyone in the audience to stand if they had something they needed to forgive a parent for. I knew I had to stand. I stood up immediately. I couldn’t not. This had to be dealt with. It was time to get honest. I was sitting about 2/3 towards the back of the church and for several (endless) seconds, I was the only one standing! I so wanted the ground to swallow me up. But I soon heard shuffling behind me and out of the corner of my eye, I could see people standing up further along the row. Then as the noise carried to the rows ahead of me, people started standing up all over the church. That night, as I stood in the church, I very memorably forgave my parents for the hurt I felt they had inflicted on me. That act of forgiveness (on my part) changed my life. I never told them what I’d done. I just did it. In my heart, I forgave. As I think back on that event, I imagine a sack of bricks falling from my shoulders. It was a ridiculous load that I should never have been carrying. I wish I’d ditched it long before. It’s the power of forgiveness. As much as I needed to forgive, I need forgiveness. God has forgiven me. I need to forgive others. And it is only when that happens that we can live this life in true freedom.
It’s time to get honest. Deal with your relationships. Lay down the person, the event, the pain, say the words “I forgive so and so” out loud. Repeat it if you need to. Get it off your back. It’s time!
This weekend, I watched as some women got honest. They stood and publicly showed their frailty. They took the first step into freedom. When you face up to your pain and look at it in the eye, you can cope with it better. When you forgive the person who caused it, you feel you have dealt with it. I have to say that the ache may hang around a bit. We live in a fallen world and until eternity, we will never be totally free of pain. However, when you offer forgiveness and let go of bitterness and anger, you are left with joy and greater control in knowing that you have got it into the light. The darkness no longer has power over it or you. It starts with getting honest.
Matthew 6:14-15
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
You can read more about what Bruce Wilkinson has been up to here. The picture and article were in the Joy Magazine last year.
Forgiveness rocks!
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂
Gratitude Pic….my first strawberry ‘harvest’…
Maybe I shouldn’t go into the strawberry selling business just yet!