Here’s my story and how it can teach you to learn to forgive and find peace.
When my son was nineteen years old, he got involved with people who were very dangerous. One night, he went to a bad part of town. He didn’t know that he would never walk away from the very spot where he met this stranger.
I was sound asleep when my doorbell rang. It was a police officer and the coroner. The coroner told me that my only child had been murdered by a single bullet to his head. The shooting was captured on video and I could see that the killer actually had to take a step back to shoot my son.
While In court, the killer did not seem remorseful. He and his attorney were actually laughing.
How did I find peace?
God’s word tells us in Romans 12: 17-19; “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
I did not repay evil for evil, instead, I chose to forgive his killer. If I wouldn’t have forgiven him, the hatred would have eaten me alive and I would’ve never found peace. Forgiving someone is more for yourself than it is for the other person. If you don’t forgive, you will never find rest. You will always feel stress and not know what is causing your stress. I’ve seen it happen to my loved ones.
God sent his son Jesus into the world to die a horrible death on a cross to offer us grace. Grace is us not getting what we deserve IF we accept Jesus’ gift. Jesus took our place so that if we accept him into our hearts as our savior, he forgives all of our sins and we can live with him for all of eternity.
So, what is the one thing that will help you forgive?
Think about Jesus dying for you and remember that he forgave you for ALL your sins. Ask Jesus to help you find it in your heart to forgive. Then trust God to do what he says in Philippians 4:7, “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.”
You need to forgive those who have hurt you so you can have peace. There is no other way. It takes a lot of work but the end result is worth all of the anguish.
Thankyou for sharing your story. My prayers with you and yours. Yes; forgiveness is a choice and not an easy action. I have noticed I struggle with forgiveness in a specific area… I find that In some form when I expect the possibility of problems… I am more able to forgive and move on; it’s when problems that were not expected that forgiveness seems to feel like a wound that continuously rears-up… so easily triggered…. healed…just to be torn open again. Starting the process all over again. Makes me think of where scripture speaks of a thorn continuously in the side. Through my struggles; with the help from the Holy spirit, I have some go-to tools that have helped me through these troublesome times. Prayers that all struggling in this area seek the help of our loving Father. I hope you don’t mind… but being that I connected with your blog through a page designed to help and encourage others with their blog page… I would like to share my newly started blog; a page that was also designed to be a comfort to others… as our Lord, our Creator, has so been a comfort to me. God bless and love to you and yours. < 3 greaterthanmeisthethree.com
I love your page. I always try to remember the saying that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% what we make of it. God is good … All the time!
A tribute to Luke and the love of God.