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An Unforgiving Heart

Mark 11:25 

“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” 

If there's a singular thing guaranteed in this life is that humans will be humans. People hurt people: they may say things that hurt you, do things the hurt you and make you feel...hurt. I think I’m getting to an age where I’m starting to see more people do things that I don’t appreciate, it can be friendships, family or people you work with whether school or in the office. With all those different people can come this internal damage called ‘unforgiveness’.  

It’s one of those things that isn’t solely seen internally but also produced externally. We all know someone that when a certain person walks into a room, their whole mood changes. Almost as if that person is a trigger for anger: sparking negative emotions just based on the presence of them. For some of us, that person that we know is ourselves, and we need to recognise that as unforgiveness.  

Forgiveness doesn’t mean you forget about what happened, or you never feel hurt by it, it’s recognising to not attach that hurt to how you treat the person that done you wrong. Whether that person is close or not close, or whether that person is even yourself, it’s about dropping that weight of pain, and walking in freedom.  

Looking at the verse, we see forgiveness can almost be seen as quite transactional. We forgive because our God that is in heaven has already forgiven us. When you make the decision to not forgive someone, you are unintentionally saying the cross wasn’t enough for you: that somehow your forgiveness is valued higher than Christ’s forgiveness. We have been forgiven and so out of that forgiveness we should pour it into other people.  

We can hold unforgiveness in the present, but we can also hold unforgiveness in the past. Time doesn’t heal entirely, God does. Whatever the situation may be, however someone may have treated you, cast it onto a sovereign God, who will not only soften your heart, but facilitate the peace to heal from it.  

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