UNFORGIVENESS: a modern day robber

Matthew 6 v 12 – And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

One of the names of God is God-Who-Forgives, Psalm 99 v 8. In Exodus 34 v 6-7, The Most High God called Himself “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering , and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin .

The Lord is merciful, Psalm 103 v 8. The Lord is not only merciful but He is full of mercy, Psalms 78 v 38. Psalm 103 v 11 says as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy –talking about the volume of His mercy. One of the things He does out of mercy is He forgives, Psalm 78 v 38 says but He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity.

We are alive by the mercies of God, the Psalmist says in Psalm 130 v 3 that if the Lord should mark iniquities, who could stand? Lamentations 3 v 22 says through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. We all know that when the Lord speaks, it is considered done. Psalm 33 v 8-9 says the reason why the whole world should fear God is He speaks and it was done. According to Jeremiah 18 v 6-8 after speaking against a nation, He can reverse what He has said out of mercy. Psalms 32 v 1 says blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. If a man whose sin is forgiven is considered as blessed, how about the fellow whose sin is not forgiven?

This brings us to the question, what can I do to qualify for God’s forgiveness? According to Matthew 6 v 14-15, if we forgive men their trespasses, God will also forgive us our trespasses but if we don’t, He will not forgive our trespasses. We sin to God every minute, David says in Psalm 143 v 2, do not enter into judgments’ with your servants, for in Your(God) sights no one living is righteous. People have hurt us, they have messed with our emotions, they have caused us pain and hurt, some have even left scars in our heart, some of these scars are lifetime. Despite all this, the Lord wants us to forgive them. Many have vowed not to forgive regardless but with the help of the Holy Spirit we will highlight the cost of unforgiveness.

·         Unforgiveness prevents the manifestation of our dreams and God’s plan for our lives. Joseph like many of us had big dreams and aspirations. In a dream he saw his sheaf arose, stood alright and his brother’s sheaf bowed down to his sheaf –Genesis 37 v6-8. In another dream, he saw the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing down to him-Genesis 37 v9-10.This dream did not materialize until he forgave his evil brothers. If you study the bible closely, you will notice that the Egyptians did not accept him as their prime minister until he forgave. When famine began, the Egyptians instead of crying to Joseph (Prime minister) went to Pharaoh – Genesis 41 v 55-56.Pharaoh had to tell them to go to Joseph, that whatever he says they you should do. After he forgave, things changed and by the time we get to Genesis 47 v 15-17, the Egyptians had accepted him as the prime minister. They were coming to him instead of Pharaoh. By the time we get Genesis 50 v 7-11, all the elders of Egypt had accepted Joseph as their leader. They travelled with Joseph to bury his Father. When the inhabitants of Canaan saw the people with Joseph; they thought the Egyptians were conducting a burial because of the presence of so many Egyptian generals. You want your dreams to come to pass please forgive

·         Unforgiveness causes God to be silent over our issues or matters or challenges. Over the matter of Moses God had never been silent. Pharaoh  killed the entire male child born to the Hebrews, when it got to the turn of Moses the Lord acted and he began to live with Pharaoh in the palace – Exodus 2 v 1-9. One day while walking, Moses saw an Egyptian bullying a Hebrew and ran to his rescue.  Moses in a bid to rescue the boy killed the Egyptian. The boy began to tell people that Moses had killed an Egyptian and before you know it.  Pharaoh heard of it and sought to kill Moses – Exodus 11 v 15. Moses had no choice than to run away but he did not forgive the Hebrews. Because of unforgiveness God was silent over his matter for forty years. When the Lord decided to act on his behalf, the first issue He dealt with was Moses unforgiveness. He asked him to go and bring the Israelites out of Egypt – Exodus 3 v 11. Moses had to forgive them to do this. The Lord was telling him forgive them and go and bring them out for Him. Thank God Moses obeyed and God began to deal with the challenges of Moses. When the Red sea tried to hinder the progress of Moses ,the Lord caused a strong east wind to blow the red sea into two – Exodus 14 v 21.

·         Unforgiveness leads to stagnancy.  Because of unforgiveness, Moses was stagnant for forty years. During that period , he went from been a prince of Egypt to a common  shepherd –Exodus 3 v 1 .All he did was tend people’s sheep, that’s all. A man who was born to be the leader of His people began to sleep and eat with sheep. Immediately he forgave he began to make progress. Within a year, He began to stand In the presence of Kings (Pharaoh) –Exodus 5 v 1. Not only that, Kings began to sought to see him –Exodus 11 v 24.In no time Kings began to see him as their father in the Lord. He became Pharaoh’s father in the Lord and that one began to send prayer request to him- Exodus 12 v31-32.

·         Unforgiveness robs us of fullness of joy. Although Joseph had joy – he was made a prime minister, married with children; his joy was not full because Jacob his father and Benjamin were missing in his life. When the opportunity came to take revenge on his evil brothers he forgave them and that opened the door to see Jacob and Benjamin again.

·         Unforgiveness leads to loneliness and isolation. Moses who had always lived in the palace and had his family around him suddenly he found himself at the back of the deserts tending flocks alone. No family, no step mum-princess, no friends and family, Just him alone but immediately he forgave he began to have friends again and before you know he had a whole nation around him. Many of us have refused to forgive our wives or husbands and because of this we are lonely. We are at home with them day and night but still lonely.

·         Unforgiveness takes us from grace to grass. Due to unforgiveness Moses went from a prince to a shepherd. Joseph went from the son to a slave to a prisoner. Because the brothers sold him , he did not forgive and things began to go bad for him. Even when he was promoted, the people still saw him as slave. They preferred the king to their new prime minister. A Christian brother went into business with another brother. The brother miss-appropriated the funds and the business suffered. The brothers had a disagreement and went on their ways. During a church program, the Holy Spirit fished out the brother that took the money and asked him to go and make restitution. The brother confessed his sins and went to this Christian Brother for forgiveness but he refused. The Lord forgave the brother that cheated and began to prosper him but things began to fall apart for the Christian Brother. At a point, the Christian brother cried to God that how come the man who cheated me is prospering and I am suffering, the Lord told him that He had forgiven the brother because he confessed his sins and changed but for him , his sins have not been forgiven because he has refused to forgive the brother. The brother immediately forgave and things went back to normal again.

·         Unforgiveness hinders the move of God. Sometimes last year, the Holy Spirit told me that do I know that a man can pray to God for something and still prevent God from doing that which he had asked of God. How?  through unforgiveness. God will not move until you forgive. Sarah did not get pregnant until she had dealt with all forms of unforgiveness in her life. Sarai did not get pregnant until she forgave her handmaid-Hagar-Genesis 16 v 1-16. Her change of name from Sarai to Sarah in Genesis 17 v 15, the visit and promise of a male son - Genesis 18 v1-16 and the birth of Isaac materialize only after she forgave Hagar and took her back.Do you know that Job had to first forgive Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Namathite before the Lord blessed him. Job 42 v 10 says and the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends .Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

·         Unforgiveness draws a family backward. When a member of a family abhors unforgiveness, the whole family suffers for it. The lord did not visit Abraham until Sarah forgave Hagar. Sarah’s unforgiveness affected the progress of Abraham in the Lord.

·         Unforgiveness determines if God will give us second chance when we offend Him or not. Many people have always wondered why God forgave David and still kept him as king even after committing adultery, killed an innocent man and took  his wife-2 Samuel 11 v 1-26 and Saul was rejected for deciding to spare some cows for sacrifice when he was told to destroy everything -1 Samuel 15 v 1-35 .One of the reason is David had a forgiving heart but Saul did not. When you study the life of David, despite all Saul did to him when he had the chance to kill Saul he did not – 1 Samuel 24 v 1-7. Despite all Absalom did, he killed his brother, overthrew David (his father)  forced him to flee, slept with the wives of David , David still found a place in his heart to forgive this boy no wonder he warned them not to kill him but bring Absalom to him alive- 2 Samuel 18 v5. Despite what Shimei the son of Gera did to David (cursed him, stoned him while David was running from Absalom) – 2 Samuel 16 v 5-10, When David returned as king and people began to tell David that Shimei needs to die, David called Shimei and forgave him, he even swore to Shimei that he will not die- Samuel 19 v21-23. Saul had no forgiving spirit at all, he passed a decree that no one should eat until he defeats his enemies. When he passed this decree, Jonathan his son was not around. That one saw honey and licked it and Saul decided to kill his son over this matter, it was the people of Israel that saved Jonathan from Saul-1 Samuel 14 v 24-46. If you have problems giving people second chance, God will also have problems with giving you second chance.

We need to forgive everyone, our children, our parents, our friends and families, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, pastors, enemies even ourselves. Many of us have not forgiven our self. Remember the parable of the two debtors in Matthew 18 v 23-35. A king forgave a servant and wrote off his huge debts. This same servant decided to put another slave in prison because he owed him money and could not afford to pay back. When the King heard he became angry and put the servant he forgave huge debt into prison and freed the slave.

According to Romans 6 v 23, the bible says the wages of sin is death. None of us deserves to live because of the number of sins we have committed. Instead of killing us Jesus died .Romans 5 v 8 say while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were living and eating in sin, Jesus died for you and me. Forgive everyone who has wronged you today not because they deserve it but out of mercy. Matthew 5 v 7 says blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy.

I will end by telling you a story.  A pastor and his wife had a quarrel at home and the wife slapped him. The man out of great anger got into his car and drove away. He had an accident and died. When he got heaven, He was sent to hell. He was told because of unforgiveness, everything he had done on earth amounted to zero .He was told that because he died without forgiving his wife who wronged him and slapped him he would have to spend eternity in hell. This man began to beg. Because this man had really labored for the Lord, Jesus out of compassion gave him an opportunity  to return and forgive his wife. He came back, forgave his wife, told the story and died immediately.

Brethren forgive everyone who has wronged you now. Contact them and tell them you have forgiven them. You have read this story and you want to think about it, What if you pass away while thinking of it?

If you have not giving your life to Christ please do so and if you have backslidded you can come back to Christ today.

The bible said in Romans 3 v 23 that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6 s 23 says for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The gift was explained in John 3 v 16 , For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. What shall we do to be saved? The bible says in Romans 10vs 9 that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10 v 10 – For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with our mouth that you confess and are saved.

Pray this prayer from your heart today!

Dear Jesus, I believe that You died for me and rose again on the third day. I confess I am a sinner. I need your love and forgiveness. Come into my heart. Forgive my sins. I receive Your eternal life. Confirm You love by giving me peace, joy and supernatural love for others, Amen.

Welcome to Christ brethren, Please join a bible believing church.

Samuel Oluwatoki

Please forward this newsletter to a friend, family or colleague. Remember Matthew 10 v 32 which say whoever confesses me before me, him I will confess before my father who is heaven.