The life-giving value of forgiveness

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14-15 NLT

The difference from one year to the next was shocking. Last summer we were in a drought. The steady rains quit their streaming and left a parched earth in their wake. Everything crumbled, and dried to a steady halt as I stood praying for rain over thirsty soil. I’m not the maker of the wind, I can’t command the waves and the water is no respecter of me. I stood feeling powerless, wondering when the earth would right itself. A few months later, it seems the answer I’d been asking for was poured out in a pent up response as water fell from the sky….it took months for the land to recover. This year has already felt like the clouds are making up for lost time. Rains have fallen, streets are flowing and I’m scratching my head wondering if the land where I live is ever going to make up its mind. 

The jury is still out. 

However, the answer from the ground up is entirely different. My plants are thriving, we have to cut our grass weekly, and it seems like, with the right amount of heat and sun and copious rainfall…..the land responds in an entirely different way. You can’t stop the growth. One leads to flourishing life. The other leads to stagnant death. And the greatest difference I can see is that it is all wrapped up in the source of the life-giving God himself. Water and life seem to go hand in hand.

He chooses when the rain falls and we choose how we respond. 

The whole thing has got me thinking about forgiveness. 

While I know the rain falls on the righteous and unrighteous (Matthew 5:45) There’s an indicator in all of this that points to the state of the heart. When it comes to the heart, we have the power and ability to tend the soil, add water and respond in kind. One of the greatest hindrances to letting the rain of God’s presence come is a correlation to forgiveness. Forgiveness speaks to a deeper issue, it is the core of the Gospel. The greatest door that our salvation opens isn’t just fire insurance, but a loving and relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit. They are the embodiment of love and life everlasting and everything good in relationship comes from them. They are water, sunshine and air……everything we need for life and to flourish. However, we can cause stoppages, blockages and drought in our lives when we cut them off. And that can happen through a heart unwilling to forgive. The entire premise that an unholy people can stand before a holy God is only because we have been forgiven of sins that have cut off water from our hearts. We cannot make a way back to the garden and we cannot cause the rains to fall…..but we can choose the state of forgiveness our heart remains in. His presence is water, his presence is life itself. Forgiveness allows living water to flow into, and through us. We can cause our hearts to parch or flourish, the choice is ours and the resulting effect speaks for itself.

As we close, I want to share something with absolute honesty and humility: I know forgiving someone who has wronged you isn’t easy. In my own walk with Jesus I have had to lay down hatred, bitterness, anger and unforgiveness countless times….and I will need to do it countless more. However hard it is, it doesn’t excuse any of us from the practice and the choice of forgiving. Matthew 6 is clear what the results will be. I believe it isn’t because God is mean….but because he alone is the righteous Judge. We forgive, because we have been forgiven. One opens us to life-giving water, the other leads to a drought. Choose life, choose life-giving water friends. You are so extravagantly loved, and he is so extravagantly worth your obedience.

So much love,

Joy