And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught [anything] against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses – Mark 11:25.
Forgiving someone is easy said than done, but it can be accomplished if you have the heart to want to please God. Forgiving is not just for the other person but also for you to be unlocked out of a spiritual prison in your mind and heart.
Prisoners don’t have the privilege to do anything without getting permission. They’re locked in a cell with a certain amount of space to move around freely. Unforgiveness locks one in an emotional state of prison. When they think about the person or hear the person’s name, they lose their happiness.
When we allow unforgiveness to plague our hearts and mind, we have allowed the person to be fully in control of our hearts and mind. Forgiveness is a heart matter, and if one professes to be a Christian, they shouldn’t have a problem forgiving.
Each of us has hurt someone in one form or another; although it may not have been brought to our attention, we hurt them. Although we didn’t literally nail Jesus to the Cross, we’re the reason He had to go to the Cross for our sins to be forgiven. He didn’t have sin, but He died for sinners, which was you and I, before we accept Jesus’ salvation.
If He’s in us like we profess He is, then we must be like Him and forgive; before He died, He said, “Father forgive them.” When we don’t forgive, it keeps us from receiving forgiveness for whatever we may have done that was out of the will of God. That’s what sin is; it’s being out of the will of God.
You may not lie, cheat or steal, but you don’t pray, you don’t fast, you don’t read your Bible, but yet, you’re professing Christianity. These are sins; it’s not God’s will for you to be prayerless, and it’s not His will for you not to fast, making your body become subject to you rather you being subject to your body. It’s not His will for you not to learn of Him by reading and studying His Word.
God’s written Word is His speaking; the more we read His Word, we will know what is acceptable and what is not acceptable to Him. The world declares it’s okay not to forgive because you have been wronged, but God’s Word says to forgive; that’s if you want your sins to be forgiven.
Because many professing Christians are holding on to unforgiveness, they suffer from oppression, depression, sadness, and sometimes physical and mental pain. Prayers aren’t answered because they have a mindset they will not forgive. Unforgiveness can send you to hell because it’s a sin being practiced.
Don’t allow unforgiveness to keep you from having a relationship with Jesus, don’t allow unforgiveness to keep you from feeling His presence, and don’t allow unforgiveness to keep your prayers from being answered. Don’t allow anyone to have you locked up in a spiritual prison when your life is in a state to determine where you will spend eternity!