“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” -Matthew 6: 14-15
Today Stephen Mansfield (Healing Your Church Hurt) discusses the second facet of forgiveness and how it is essential to being set free.
2. Aphesis means “to release, as from prison”. Reflecting on Matthew 6: 14-15, Stephen notes that we all have our own trophy room, as he aptly describes:
“These (our trophy rooms) are the places in our minds where we revisit the episodes of offense in our lives and rekindle the fires of anger against those who’ve treated us badly. We use our trophy rooms to justify our rage and to set ourselves at a distance from the people we ought to love. We use them to feel better about ourselves and excuse ourselves from the commands of God.”
However, Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 enable us to realize that our little trophy rooms are within an even larger prison. As long as we keep those responsible for our ministry downsizing or vocation loss in our beloved trophy rooms, we’re bound in a larger prison of our own construction. We must free those chained and caged in our trophy rooms through personal repentance and forgiveness.
Today’s question: How does acknowledgement of your trophy room begin to release you from the grip of unforgiveness? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The hook of compassion”
