Parakalein

Holding un-forgivenss in your heart does not hurt the offending party but the offended party.  Foregivenss is not about letting the offender off the hook it is about the offended getting off the hook and on with living.

I came across this quote that triggered this thought:

"Un forgiveness does a great deal more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than the object on which it is poured"

AS I mused on this, it became

Un-forgiveness damages the heart of the vessel that holds un forgiveness, forgiveness opens the flow of grace not to the offender but to the offended.  Living in grace is not about forgiving the offending person it is about not letting the offense steal grace from the offended.  

As we read in the Lord's prayer, "we are to forgive others as we are forgiven".  We are forgiven by a God who opens wide his heart of forgiveness but knows that forgiveness is a gift both offered not given and received not exploited.  It can be offered and rejected or received without effecting the offer or the offering.

Grace greater than all our offenses is grace that takes no offense in and gives no offense out!  It forgives as we are forgiven, not because we deserve it or because it has to be given but by offering it we are released from all resentment, residue, or reactions created by the offense.  We are released to be who we are regardless of anything.  Forgiving our un-forgiving human parts is the divine grace imparted by us and exported by us to all.  "Forgiving as we are forgiven" not giving forgiveness without self-protection and not withholding forgiveness for self preservation.  As in Christ God offers forgiveness to all for all have sinned, so we offer a heart of forgiveness to all.  As in Adam and Eve humanity judged, shamed and blamed itself and so all entered into a state of un-forgivenss, sin and despair so as all have sinned in Adam so all come alive in living free of sin in Christ.

We get off the hook of self judgment, self effacement, or self righteousness and we get off the shelf of self-protection, self preservation, and self sufficiency.