The Superpower Of Forgiveness

I WAS STUNNED when I received the call. They took what was intended to be mine! How could my extended family be so deceitful? I wondered. While I was living on the opposite coast, they had concocted an elaborate scheme to change my grandmother’s will.

I enjoyed a special relationship with my grandmother through the years. She lived with my sister and me for months when my mother stayed by my father’s side in Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC. My dad, an army colonel, had a life-threatening heart issue related to his service during the Korean War. Grandma attended my special events and was very involved in my life. She was delighted when I married Bob, and she loved being part of our wedding festivities. Although I never inquired, my grandmother often mentioned that her sizable estate would be divided evenly between her six grandchildren. But when she died, my sister and I were only awarded one hundred dollars apiece. I never received my check and later learned that while my grandmother was dying, she was forced to sign a new will, one she was too ill to even read.

Bob and I had only been married two years, were attending grad school, and had no optional resources or time to fight. We certainly could have used the money. We prayed, sought counsel, called an attorney, and prayed some more. After weighing our options, we decided on a radical choice—we would forgive and let it go. I never saw my offenders again.

Forgiveness was still a new concept for me at the time. When I was growing up, I never knew it was an option. It was not my go-to response in situations involving offenses or injustices. Actually, it wasn’t my go-to response at all.

When I first found out about the theft, I did what came naturally—I became angry. Anger turned to bitterness, which consumed my life for a day or two. Unwilling to forgive, I was in bondage for a short time, awarding the thieves a double victory. At first Bob had been angry, too, but then he began to reflect on forgiveness. He learned that in the original Greek of the New Testament, which he was studying at the time, one word used for forgive means “releasing someone from obligation or debt.”^a And we didn’t need to look hard to find applicable Scripture on forgiveness in our Bibles. This verse from the Lord’s Prayer was a good place to begin: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).

Bob and I prayed together, admitting to the Lord how challenging it was for us to forgive and walk away. I still remember how amazing it felt when we laid the offense and the people involved at the foot of the cross. We experienced the incredible results of forgiving the offenders—freedom, peace, and the ability to move on and not look back.

When we forgive offenses, our enemy, the devil, might try to dredge them up and place the portraits of the offenders back in the galleries of our minds. That happened in our case. But Bob and I recognized the source and agreed together that the offense was buried and no longer controlled us. As my grandson might shout, “Forgiveness is an incredible superpower”—a superpower that erases the memory of an injustice. It works so well that I had forgotten about this incident until I asked the Lord to remind me of a long-ago offense I could use in this devotion.

Is there someone you need to forgive—a parent; your husband or child; a friend, boss, or neighbor? Often people closest to us hurt us the most. How can you and I forgive those who have gossiped about us, crushed our spirits, treated us unfairly, or taken what is rightfully ours?

Reconciliation is a welcome gift, but it’s one our offenders may not choose to give. Whether or not our relationships with the offenders are fully repaired or restored, forgiveness is God’s great gift to us, made possible by His Son, Jesus. It really is a superpower. In the same way that God forgives our offenses against Him, we must also do the same for others: “Forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you” (Colossians 3:13).

REFLECTION

Read the story of the unforgiving debtor in Matthew 18:21-35. What do you take away from this parable that you can apply to your life? Select a few key verses from this passage to meditate on this week, or choose from 130-plus other Bible verses on forgiveness. If you have someone in your life you need to forgive, consider how holding on to their offense has affected you. How do you think you could be changed if you were able to let it go? Pray that God would help you to forgive so you can experience His freedom.