What If I Don't Forgive

Would you willingly build your own prison cell? Probably not. Yet, many Christians spend years incarcerated by bitterness, anger, and resentment toward those who have offended them. The building blocks of emotional imprisonment so often are byproducts of an unforgiving spirit. When we refuse to release someone from the relational debt they owe us, we pay a high price emotionally. Peace is lost. Joy is crimped. The gift of relationship is refused. Worse yet, an unforgiving spirit spills out onto others; those who know us and love us are demoralized and disheartened. But the greatest consequence of an unforgiving heart is the dissonance it brings to our relationship with God Himself. “… His master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers... So My heavenly Father also will do to each of you if each of you, from his heart, does not for give his brother his trespasses, ” (Matthew 18:34-35, NKJV).