5 Golden Benefits of Forgiveness

Keeping the faith is super important and staying faithful is beautiful. Stephen and Jesus Christ are clear examples among so many others.  Keeping their Faiths in the face of persecution and brutality is already wonderful, but why did these persons go right ahead to forgive their oppressors right before their deaths. Read it again and think about it. What was this forgiveness all about?  Was the forgiveness to the sole benefit of their brutalizers? Or did it serve a dual purpose?  Who benefits most from these cases of forgiveness? The forgiver or the forgiven?

Forgiveness serves the interests of the forgiver more, than that of the forgiven. Sounds strange right? Yet I'm certain about this. Let me prove it. If Christ didn't forgive the soldiers and the chief priests and the pharisees and the crowd who shouted "crucify him" and his friends who deserted him and the one who denied him and the one who betrayed him, if Christ didn't forgive this whole set of people, then He wouldn't have been given a Name above every other name and he wouldn't be seated by the Right hand of God, the father, because he would be bearing a grudge. 

By forgiving these people, Christ made sure that there was no sin in him. By pardoning his assailants, Stephen qualified his soul for eternity in the Kingdom of God. If he didn't forgive them, they all would have met one another in hell.

So do you still think you are doing a person a favor by forgiving him/her? Do you? Do you know that when you forgive, you are actually  doing it for yourself?  Forgiveness doesn't necessarily need to happen in the absence of hurt or pain. The pain can still be very much present. And forgiveness can still take place in those circumstances. You can't only forgive when it no longer hurts, or when the pain is all gone.

Christ still had the nails in his hands, his sides gushing with blood and water and the crown of thorns bruising his head, and yet He said" Father forgive them for they they know not what they do". He knew he needed to forgive. 

   Enduring persecution and trials and then failing to forgive is just like sweeping a house thoroughly clean and then scattering the refuse all over the house again. Endurance. Faithfulness. And then Forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the the last phase of the Divine promotion process. Take for instance, Christ forgave and His crown of thorns was changed to a Crown of Gold. Stephen's bloodstained clothes were changed into Kingdom robes. Only  Because they forgave. 

Beloved, forgiveness serves you more, the forgiver, than the recipient of the forgiveness. Think of this,  Christ never received any apology, neither did Brother Stephen. So how come they forgave? Because they needed it too. Whenever the devil uses someone to push a grudge into your spirit, remember this secret. When we forgive, we enter into another level of Grace and we bring ourselves closer to God, the first forgiver.  Adam never asked for forgiveness, at least the Bible never documented it. But God immediately started strategizing on how to bring man back to Himself.  Let us emulate God. Let us emulate Christ and Stephen. Even though it can be extremely difficult. Let us cultivate a forgiving spirit for forgiveness is that which  ensures our divine promotion. This is the the end of this expose of mine, Brethren. 

May the Holy Spirit empower you and give you the strength needed to forgive all who trespass against you.