Read Living in the Abundance of God Online
Authors: John Osteen
Living in the Abundance of God (6 page)
F
Y
OU
H
AVE
A
NYTHING
A
GAINST
A
NYONE”
When you walk in forgiveness, you open the door for God to work in your life and in the lives of those who have wronged you. As you forgive, you will reign in life as a king over circumstances, disappointments, and sorrow. Forgiveness is a key to enjoying the abundance of God.
Forgiveness produces:
Peace,
reconciliation,
harmony,
understanding,
and fellowship.
Unforgiveness produces:
Strife,
bitterness,
disharmony,
hatred,
and warfare.
At times, the whole human race is in danger of being overwhelmed by these evil, negative forces. We, as Christians, are to shine as lights in a dark world. We are to be forgiving people. “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).
Anything
means everything, big and small, even what may seem like almost nothing at all.
Anyone
means everybody. We are to forgive everybody for anything and everything they have done to hurt us.
Obviously, the most hurtful areas of our lives need to be forgiven. Jesus said the minutest detail must also be forgiven.
Sometimes we need to forgive a person who is dead. Unforgiveness is equally as harmful in our lives whether the person is living or dead.
Many times the hardest person to forgive is oneself. We make many mistakes, some of which may have devastated our lives, yet we have to learn to accept those mistakes as being a part of our past. We have to press on. Jesus taught us to forgive if we have anything against anyone, and that includes ourselves.
ET AT THE
R
OOT OF THE
P
ROBLEM
People want to receive from God, but they do not want to talk about unforgiveness. They may want to be healed or to be blessed with a new job or to have all of their financial needs met. Unforgiveness is often the root of the problem.
When Jesus was in Bethany, He passed a fig tree. “And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, ‘Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.’ And His disciples heard it” (Mark 11:13–14).
There were two areas of that fig tree—the
seen
and the
unseen
. There was a part that they could see and a part they could not see. The part that could not be seen was the root system.
We have a root system. Our root system is the unseen part of us—the spirit person.
When Jesus spoke to that fig tree, His words took effect in the unseen area. By the following day, the fig tree had withered, and His words had manifested in the seen area. Jesus knew that the unseen area was where the tree received its life. The Word of the Lord took effect immediately in the unseen area, the root system.
If we want results in the seen area—our physical bodies—we must learn to care for the root system properly.
The Bible teaches us that bitterness has a root: “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled” (Hebrews 12:14–15).
OU
H
AVE THE
P
OWER TO
F
ORGIVE
You may say, “I do not have the power to forgive. I was so mistreated as a child that I could never forgive my parents for what they did.” Yes, you can. You can forgive because God provided forgiveness at the cross for you. You are forgiven, not because you deserve it, but by grace.
By the grace provided at the cross, you have the power necessary to forgive others. Isaiah 53:4–6 makes that perfectly clear:
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken
,
Smitten by God, and afflicted
.
But He was wounded for our transgressions
,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him
,
And by His stripes we are healed
.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the L
ORD
has laid on Him the iniquity of us all
.
Only on the basis of the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross can we receive forgiveness from God.
Only on the basis of the grace of God offered to us by His death can we offer forgiveness to others.
It was at the cross that Jesus cancelled every claim of sin on our lives, and it is at the cross that we are empowered by grace to forgive. “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
Forgiveness is a
decision
. You must choose to forgive whether you feel like it or not. As you stand on that decision, God in you will love the person who has wronged you. One day, you may suddenly realize that you cannot even remember the wrong they committed against you.
Receiving the forgiveness of God is also a
decision
. You choose to believe that God’s Word is true. If God said He would forgive you, He will. You do not deserve it, but forgiveness is yours because He loves you and desires fellowship with you. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
Forgiveness
IS A DECISION
.
RAYER FOR
F
ORGIVENESS
David prayed a beautiful prayer for the forgiveness of his sins. In Psalm 51:1–3, 6–13, he desired to be set apart to God:
Have mercy upon me, O God
,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies
,
Blot out my transgressions
.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
,
And cleanse me from my sin
.
For I acknowledge my transgressions
,
And my sin is always before me
.
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts
,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom
.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow
.
Make me hear joy and gladness
,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice
.
Hide Your face from my sins
,
And blot out all my iniquities
.
Create in me a clean heart, O God
,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me
.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me
.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit
.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways
,
And sinners shall be converted to You
.
We can pray the same prayer that David prayed. The Bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart.
Praise God, we have been forgiven, and we have the power to forgive others through Jesus Christ!
We reign in life through forgiveness! We walk in the abundance of His provisions!
J
OEL
A
young woman once came to my dad for spiritual help. Several boys had sexually assaulted her when she was in her teens. Consequently, she could not have an intimate relationship with her husband. She realized that all that anger and hatred in her heart was affecting her relationship with her husband. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy to forgive those men, but she refused to let the past continue to poison her present or future. Interestingly, from that moment of forgiveness on, she was able to enjoy a healthy relationship with her husband. She got down to the root to deal with the fruit
.
To live in the present moment, we must forgive those people who have hurt us in the past. Too often, we try to collect our debts from other people. When somebody hurts us, we feel like they owe us. Somebody should pay for that pain we have suffered! So we take it out on other people even though they weren’t involved
.
But here’s the problem: only God can pay that debt; other people can’t do it. Moreover, you should not drag something that happened in the past into your relationships today. Don’t punish your spouse, your children, your friends, or your coworkers for something in your past. Instead, turn it over to God and keep your heart free from bitterness and resentment
.
