Can you forgive?

Matthew West's new song "Forgiveness" doesn't just speak to me, it's yelling at me.  It's not easy to forgive someone especially if you have been hurt deeply.  It's a choice we make and sometimes it feels easier to sit and stew in your anger then actually bring yourself to let go and forgive the person.

What I have learned is that it takes a lot of work and energy to be mad at someone.  It can literally age a person before your eyes as they are being eaten up inside with the pain.  Everyone has to come to a time of forgiveness on their own or it's not genuine.

So if this is you, and you need to forgive someone, write down all your hurt, all the emotions you feel from the hurt and then pray it out.  Pray out every emotion, say the words and ask God to release you.  It may be short and sweet or you may be praying for an hour as you get it all out, but do it, get it ALL out.  One of the lines in West's song is "So, let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace, the prisoner that it really frees is you".  Once we choose to set ourselves free from this pain, the weight, the hurt is taken off our shoulders and you can live again.  God forgives us with just one prayer, shouldn't we extend that same grace to those who have done wrong to us.

Matthew 6:12

Good News Translation (GNT)

¹² Forgive us the wrongs we have done,
    as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.

The song from Matthew West helped me open my heart to forgive and it's amazing what God can do when we open our heart and allow him to do a work in our life.  Forgiveness is the first step, it's what we do next that can change everything.  Here is the story behind the song "Forgiveness"