Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
The forgiveness you extend to others, will come right back at you. Forgiveness given is forgiveness received.
The all-encompassing arms of Love include one and all.
My Mother would often say: “To forgive is to ‘give up the lie’… ‘for the divine Truth’ about any given situation”
Love this. Thank you for sharing.
Especially needed right now.
Thanks for sharing your mother’s wisdom..such a fresh way to move past the burden.
Thank you Fay, this is very high wisdom that your dear mother shared.
Thanks Evan for bringing our thought to forgiveness, always needed, sometimes easily forgotten in our busy day to day lives. Forgiveness benefits the forgiver, as much or more than the one being forgiven, it allows us to put down a heavy burden we have been dragging around, weighing us down.
Here’s another version of the verse from Colossians (from The Message translation) :
“Dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.”
I realized when you take away blame, there’s nothing to forgive.
That is a great way to look at it….and to act on it.
Thank you, Evan. I love the picture; it describes more than 1000 words.
And thanks Fay for: “ to forgive is to give up the lie”.
To give true Love there is nothing in
thought to forgive. Even with what is
called self, wasted time, forgetting to
do something …
Giving love is more satisfying , as
we all know.
Thanks Evan
I am a work in progress but am gaining momentum every moment.
To forgive honestly is to let the barbed arrow of hatred shot at you pass right through you with no effect, because then only GOOD will be seen and put into practice as then divine Love will be at the helm of forgiveness and then everything and everyone will be seen through the lens of that perfect healing Love.
Thank you Evan for the healing reminder to forgive instantly is to love one another as Christ Jesus loved us.
Way to go Linda !
You captured a lot with “a work in progress” I relate.
To share a discovery that I recently uncovered, was that all this stuff that i would judge or compare or do….was based solely on temporal belief. Not spiritual truth.
And the truth upon which i stand is that My Father and I are one. also i say it, my Father and i IS one.
Bon voyage !
thank you John B for your true relationship with spiritual truth. Because you are ONE with YOUR Father, and I am one with my father, I join you in the revelation that my Father and I are ONE! Healing the wound of not having him HERE with me as he passed way to young, speaking only of my human father. I AND my HEAVENLY FATHER are ONE NOW, and ALWAYS! Yours is/was a very good revelation today, lifting me up higher!!!
I love all of the profound messages shared here! Such clarity
and a feeling of belonging, dear chilesands, in how you
described Our relationship with God, our Father/Mother,
being ONE. Love it!! I think we are all “works in progress”.
But within our journey, as dear Evan so rightfully wrote,
“The all-encompassing arms of Love include one and all”.
Lovely !!! How very comforting is that!
Linda,
I would say it is not a barbed arrow of hatred at all. It is we ourselves who have to barb the arrow for it to wound. It is OUR thought. It doesn’t matter if someone intentionally or unintentionally said something. Who knows if they tried to offend us or not. And why should it matter? Why make the decision to take offense? That decision hurts us. Forgiveness gives us a way out of hatred and hurt. Why choose hatred and hurt? Why get tricked into thinking there is some advantage in holding a grudge. I love this Fay because it is so true;
“ to forgive is to give up the lie”.
Thank you Evan, and all the comments above – very helpful.
Another angle that comes to me is that I must forgive myself if
am tempted to believe for a moment that there is anything to forgive in any one else.
We can continually claim and know that we have the mind of Christ, which is God, and
therefore nothing can take away our spiritual sense of peace and harmony and prevent
us from continuing to love as Christ loved everyone, and seeing them as
perfect, as he did – the perfect reflection of God’s goodness..
I should have included, to live so we don’t
offend others. “Love alone is Life”
Hymn p 31
since we are created in the image of God almighty, we all need to emulate our heavenly father Jehovah who forgives us freely each time we wrong him, so we need to forgive others freely without keeping anything against them.
Sometimes we have no idea why someone seems to be angry or upset with us.
Other times we know, but our unforgiveness seems justified. But forgiveness,
like Jesus forgave, anyway … and said to forgive [them] for they know not what
they do. If he could forgive, after the cruelty and injustice that was shown to
him (one of the most gentle and spiritual and loving persons there ever was) …
his example sets a lesson for us. Sometimes it is “love meeting no
response, but still remaining love.” (Mrs. Eddy)
His humbleness and forgiveness teaches us not to hold on to anything that
would harm ourselves by harboring unkind thoughts, which unforgiveness
seems to do. Love is the antidote of any wrong we seem to have been accused
of or have felt.
“Letting go of Resentment” By Elise L. Moore, From the October, 2000 issue of The Herald of Christian Science (Spanish):
https://elisemoore.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/20091102094630.pdf
Thank you, J, for sharing. I love this article, which shares some ideas about how to transmute the petitionary prayer urge into a more elevated approach. Especially useful regarding resentment toward others or self-resentment, as the author shares. Mercy heals them both!
Learned a great lesson last night, feeling on the receiving end of an angry outburst, I stayed quiet for an extended period, reflecting on all the LOVE I had to give, provided with no interference from GOD, waiting for HIM to remove what ever had been offensive. The moment arrived after a period of reflection when all the anger was confronted, dissolved and peace was restored. Before sleeping overnight the conflict disappeared, after pieces of the outburst were explained calmly and sleep came easy. Awaking this morning was to rejoice in LOVE from GOD was shared, to bring peace and focusing on the shared goal for today fell into place. THANK GOD for his eternal LOVE!
Thanks! This is just what I needed today. Forgiveness I was able to do but expunge the record is much
more difficult and MBE says we must do that. This is a work in progress.
I am…a work in progress,……
Linda’s line and John b… responded, .. to be smiling and thankful with understanding.. …
GOD IS.. the perfect work in progress..reliable.. One on One, Always will meet every human need.
.Who is rounding up and tending Her sheep, loving unconditional .. knowing every need, able to Satisfy.. what un-ending faith, belief , understanding..of Truth..the real.. no brainer!
To think ” a mortal’ ..me.. is trying to butt in and be smart..I shutter to think how getting down on my knees..was holding back because of some ego … thinking God, is separate..maybe..making ‘sense ‘ sometime later.. Forgive? … there’s no holding back what already is Perfect Love.
Spiritual Reality .. there aren’t any knees,.. the humble flight of Divine Love, spotless purity..
We’re OFF..As in the Beginning World, without end.. amen..”thank you everyone”.. as fishers along the Living Water.. fishers of many … to drink …from His cup, accepting and, waking up…All in All
Hey tina, good stuff. yes i found that i was trying to be “humanly spiritual” for want of a better way to put it.
And i was retaining a belief that there was something, anything outside of God. And then i connected the dots that in healing it is always a healing of a belief, never of material circumstances. and the truth that God and i are one vanquishes the belief that i could ever be separate from God.
to sum up, read Romans 6:16, which to me is saying “if i believe in “x” then i become “x’s” servant.
I realized when you take away blame, there’s nothing to forgive.
I love this freeing thought – thank you for sharing it Cheri!
Years ago I would sometimes mumble and grumble at a task I was forced to
do alone and would mentally nurse these feelings of resentment as being
warranted, as anyone who knew, mortally, would also feel. It felt a little better
at the time, feeling I had a Right to be angry – to “blame”, but that feeling
was short-lived and the next time I was faced with a similar challenge –
that resentment still persisted. In Knowing that these thoughts were only
hurting myself and the person they were aimed at had no idea, I realized
that this misplaced erroneous thinking, was just a seeming challenge from
mortal thinking, that was only hurting myself. My learning eventually sunk
in – that seeing the other person as, also, a child of God, freed both of us
from this material grasp that dissolved completely when I learned to let it
go and move on. I think we need to be on guard that other’s (really mortal
mind’s) thinking can harm us in any way, also.
With God’s strength, the experiences lessened that would seem to turn
me into a “victim” and although, like all of us, things sometimes arise that
we constantly have to keep learning from, resentment is not as evident
as it was, for which I am very grateful.
Thank you all for these inspiring ideas on forgiveness! I am finding it so important to spiritual growth and progress but often so difficult to achieve. I was thinking deeply about this one day and realized that what is so hard to forgive is the perceived lack of love that the incident seems to present. An unkindness or hardness – especially from someone that you would expect better of. So what has helped me is to know that I could never have been outside of God’s Love. Actually, neither could the one who offended me. Right when the offense happened, I was actually just surrounded and protected by the infinite love of our Father. Therefore, nothing could have gone out but love and nothing could touch me but Love. “ clad in the panoply of love, human hatred cannot touch you.
Thank you Evan, and all who commented for the loving answer to whatever seems to come to cause us to object to what is said or done. Mrs. Eddy gives us direction in the Manual for handling aggressive mental suggestion which is all this really is–a suggestion of resentment, objecting, taking offence, etc. When we see it as it really is and see Love, we are being obedient.
“It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind.” (Man. 42:4–8 It)
How amazing that the one word..forgive.. has invoked so many heartfelt comments and personal observations…including my self! There’s always room for another ‘’lightbulb’’ moment to bring us closer to a truer understanding of what being the complete expression of God really means.
I loved the way the article ( thank you J ) takes the forgiveness one step further toward the annihilation of any particular moment of hurt or resentment …..after all if it begins as a material belief it can only count as no-thing.
I’m so grateful for all we share here on Spirit View. Love to all❣️
“The all-encompassing arms of Love include one and all!”
Thank you very much dear Evan for this freeing truth sentence! This Truth is so needed by me presently, namely to know that God raps us warmly into His arms of Love and caring for us in every need! ♡
I read here in the comments that, if we love honestly there is no reason to forgive anything. That is a simple and comforting divine truth!♡
I am also very thankful for all we share here and for the comfort and love and healing this SpiritView Blog gives me and us a l l ! Lots of Love ❤️