The Motivation of One Who Forgives
Philemon 19-25
If you will, open your Bible this morning to our final of four lessons in the wonderful little epistle of Philemon. We've entitled these four lessons, "Living lessons on forgiveness." For those of you who haven't been with us in the series, just a brief review.
The Apostle Paul wrote this letter which is only one chapter, 25 verses long. He wrote it to a friend by the name of Philemon. He had led Philemon to Christ. Philemon had obviously grown in Christ. It is evident from this letter that he was a man of great Christian character and conviction. His wife is mentioned in verse 2, Apphia.
And most likely his son also is identified as Archippus who also was involved in Christian ministry. Apparently Philemon was a man of some wealth. He was able to have the church at Colossae meet in his own house. And so he was well acquainted with many of the spiritual leaders and preachers and teachers of that time.
There was another member of the household of Philemon, a slave who is mentioned in verse 10 by the name of Onesimus. Onesimus had wanted his freedom. He was not a Christian and so he ran away. He was a fugitive runaway slave and when he left he must have taken money or something of value to support himself in the underground of the city of Rome where he went.
By the providence of God this runaway slave in the city of Rome came in contact with the Apostle Paul who was imprisoned there. Onesimus came under the hearing of Paul's preaching and was converted to Jesus Christ. This slave, Onesimus, then being a Christian became a very dear and treasured friend of Paul and a helper of Paul even in his time of imprisonment.
When Paul found out that he was a runaway slave who had run from Paul's own friend Philemon, he knew he had to send him back. This letter then from Paul to Philemon has one major emphasis, it asks Philemon to forgive this runaway slave, Onesimus, who has now become a believer. And so in that regard it is a personal testimony of forgiveness.
And this little letter without ever mentioning the word "forgiveness" teaches us a living lesson in forgiveness. It teaches us some very essential elements of forgiveness.
Paul has already helped us to see and identify the kind of character one has to have to forgive. In verses 4 through 7 we find if you are going to have the character of one who forgives you will have a concern for the Lord, a concern for people, a concern for fellowship, a concern for knowledge, a concern for Christ's glory and a concern for service.
Then Paul helps us identify the actions of one who forgives and we noted that there are three elements to that action. There is reception, then restoration, and then restitution. That's in verses 8 through 18.
And then we come now to the final verses of this letter, verses 19 through 25, and there Paul opens to us insight into the motivation for forgiveness. Why forgive? What is the compelling driving internal motivation?
1. The recognition that I owe a debt I can't pay.
Notice verse 19a
This is quite an interesting note. Paul's custom was to dictate his letters to a secretary; somebody who wrote them down. But it was also Paul's custom at the end of many of his letters to pick up the quill and to sign his own name.
For example, at the end of the letter to the Colossians which would have been delivered at the same time Philemon was being delivered, you'll notice in chapter 4 verse 18 that epistle closes with this, "I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, remember my imprisonment, grace be with you."
Not unlike what you might do today were you to dictate a letter and have your secretary write it all down and then sign your name and add a PS in your own hand. It was common for the Apostle Paul to pick the pen and write something with his own hand.
Now you will notice that he has said something very significant in verse 18. He said, "If Onesimus has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account." This is the issue of restitution. Paul knows Onesimus has nothing. He can't repay what he stole.
He can't repay the 500 denarii that Philemon had to spend to get someone to replace him. So Paul says instead of trying to get it out of him, he doesn't have it, just charge it to my account. And then most interestingly, Paul says, "I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand, I will repay it." And Paul picks up the pen and signs the IOU with his own name.
And then he just keeps the pen in hand from verse 19 to the end. He is signing his name and saying I will make restitution for Onesimus who has no money.
But then notice what he says in the remainder of verse 19.
19b
What is he saying here? He's saying, "By the way, I know Onesimus owes you a debt, but may I remind you that you owe me a greater debt than he owes you?" Here's Paul's plan. Put his debt on my account, then cancel it because you owe me so much. That's what he says.
Now there's a principle here. Philemon is not just a man who is owed the payment of a debt. Philemon is also a debtor who owes a far greater and unpayable debt to Paul. Onesimus owes Philemon a material debt. Philemon owes Paul a spiritual debt. Onesimus owes Philemon a temporal debt. Philemon owes Paul an eternal debt.
Why? Because Paul had given him the gospel. Paul had led him to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Question: How do you ever pay someone back for giving to you the gospel? How is he ever going to pay that back? So he says Onesimus' debt should be put on my account and then cancelled because you owe me so much, because I was used by God to deliver you from death and hell.
Now the principle is just that simple. Somebody does something against you, offends you, owes you something, remember this, you owe such unpayable debts to others who have generously and graciously and faithfully and lovingly benefited you with the richest of spiritual blessings and they don't demand payment and neither could you pay it should they demand it, so can't you release the simple temporal financial debt or obligation of one who has only offended you in an earthly way? That's his point.
Let me personalize it. I'm in debt to so many people. In fact, I'm so deeply in debt to so many people for so much that I could never ever come close to repaying it.
I'm in debt to my godly parents. I could never repay my debt to my parents.
I'm in debt to countless pastors and Sunday school teacher’s for hours of preparation and patience and love and help. I could never repay them
I’m in debt to my wife for her friendship, for her love, for her support, for her wisdom, her input, her correction, her convictions. I'm in debt to her...I could never repay the spiritual debt that I owe her.
I’m in debt to churches who have called and trusted me as pastor and followed my leadership and provided for my family and prayed and taken care of me. I could never repay that debt.
I'm in debt to friends who have ministered to me graciously and beneficially. I am in debt to men who have written books that have shaped my life and my thinking and my ministry.
I am so deeply in debt to so many people for so much spiritual blessing that I could never repay...never. And I am so in debt to so many that only God can pay them back. And God will have to repay them all by giving them an eternal reward for all that they have sacrificed for me because I can never pay them back.
How then can I who owes so much to so many not forgive someone who owes a simple earthly debt to me? See Paul's point? Since I have so many spiritual debts that I can never repay, can I not allow gladly some material debt to go unpaid and fully forgive the one who owes it? So Paul with his inspired genius seeks to motivate us to forgive by reminding us of how much we owe.
2. The recognition that I can become a blessing to others.
verse 20
Notice the words "me and my". Now earlier he’s said in verse 7 you have blessed so many. Now he’s saying “include me” in those that you bless.
It's my turn, he says, if you'll forgive him you'll bless me, you'll benefit me in the Lord.
What does he mean by that? How is it going to benefit Paul?
First he says it will bring him joy.
He’s saying. “Philemon, if you will humble yourself and consider Onesimus more important than yourself and seek unity and love and fellowship and therefore forgive that man, you will bring me joy.”
And so he's saying you should be motivated by wanting to be a blessing to others. You should be motivated to forgive because it will rejoice the heart of another. So he says let me benefit from you in the Lord and then adds...refresh my heart in Christ, again in that spiritual sphere. Bless me, refresh me. You refreshed everybody else back in verse 7, now it's my turn.
The forgiveness of Onesimus by Philemon will bring spiritual joy and refreshment because Paul loves both those men. Paul wants them to be one. Paul loves the unity of the church. Paul wants Colossae as a church to see that forgiveness as a great example, an object lesson.
If Philemon refuses to forgive Onesimus, it will burden the heart of Paul, it will sadden the heart of Paul, it will trouble the heart of Paul because he loves both those men and he loves that church and he loves the unity of the church. Any failure to forgive will injure that relationship, and it will injure that church.
It will mar its ministry and its effectiveness and it will misrepresent the power of the gospel to the unconverted world that's watching. So he simply says you've been willing to do so much refreshing for other people, would you just do this for me? Would you forgive this man and refresh me and bless me and give me joy?
3. The recognition that I am called to be obedient to the Lord.
Verse 21
Again with pen in hand Paul says, "Look, I have confidence in your obedience." And he touches that heart string again in Philemon that is plucked by the need to obey God. Paul is just saying I know you'll obey the Lord in this. Paul is confident that Philemon is a godly man. He laid out his characteristics in verses 4 to 7. He is confident that he will act in a right way to obey God's command to forgive.
Remember I told you that that theology of forgiveness is not in this letter, but we can assume Philemon knew it? We can assume Philemon was well acquainted with Matthew chapter 6, with the principle there that if you don't forgive your brother, God's not going to forgive you.
He was very familiar with Matthew 18 principles, like you must forgive, you must forgive seventy times seven, or as Luke 17:3 and 4 tells us, you must forgive if need be seven times a day. He was well familiar with the Apostle Paul's conviction, 2 Corinthians 2:7, that forgiveness was essential.
He certainly was sure of what Paul said in Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13, though he hadn't read them, that he must forgive because he had been forgiven so much. Philemon knew that God commanded forgiveness. Paul is sure he knew it. That's why he doesn't bring it up. And Paul is even sure he'll do it. He says I'm confident of your obedience. I know you're going to do what God's commanded you to do, and God has commanded you to forgive.
And so you're motivated not only because you owe debts you can't pay, not only because of what he says in verse 20, you'll be a blessing and a joy to other believers, but because you know God expects you to obey. And then he even says this in verse 21, "I know you will do even more than what I say."
There's a fourth compelling motive for forgiveness and that is
4. The recognition that I my relationships affect my prayer life
verse 22
Now watch how this unfolds: Paul says I’m expecting to come see you soon, and I expect you to have this taken care of before I arrive.
But he goes on to say, If that happens I know it is because you’ve been praying for my release. And if and when I show up it will be because God has answered your prayers for me.
Look at verse 22 again.
Paul says “You need to get this thing dealt with, because I am coming to see you when God answers your prayers for me.”
Paul is very aware of the providential work of God, he referred to it back in verse 15 when he assumed that perhaps Onesimus had even run away in order that he might come back a Christian. He knew God was at work in all of this. And he says my hope is that God's going to let me come to you and the means of that will be through your prayers.
And so what he does is he not only tells Philemon
I'm coming but he tells Philemon in effect, start praying for my arrival. And I'll tell you what, if he knows he's coming and he's praying for Paul's arrival, that's going to affect the way he acts toward Onesimus, because if he hasn't fully forgiven Onesimus, he's not about to have his prayer go something like, "O Lord God, please bring the Apostle Paul soon." No way, if he hasn't forgiven Onesimus.
So, Paul literally paints him into a corner. I'm coming and I'm expecting that what will free me is your prayers. That's a heavy burden.
So now Philemon is saying to himself...If I don't pray, he doesn't get out of prison. I don't want to be responsible for him being in prison, therefore, I've got to pray for his release. But I can’t pray for his release unless my heart is right with God, and I can’t be right with God and not right with Onesimus, therefore I must forgive him as Paul has requested me to do.
Many people never make the connection between their unanswered prayers and their unforgiving spirit. Peter said, Husbands learn to get along with your wives so your prayers won’t be hindered.
There is a vital connection between the health of our relationships and the effectiveness of our prayers. And you know as well as I you just can’t pray when you’re mad at somebody. Every time you try, the first thing that comes to mind is that issue.
So Paul says, Get this settled so your prayers won’t be hindered, and I can get out of jail and come see you.
There's a fifth motivation.
5. The recognition that I am a part of a fellowship.
Verses 23 and 24
What's he saying? He's saying you can't act independently of the fellowship. You don't act alone. If you don't forgive, you will fracture the love bond that exists between these men and you. You will violate their expectations of you. You will set a bad example for them. You can't do just what you want to do as if you existed alone.
You not only have a level of accountability to one who is your spiritual leader, but you have a level of responsibility to set the standard for those who are your spiritual friends. Five men, they send their greetings, Philemon. They have high expectations of you.
Think about that: Here are five well‑known prominent people. They know Philemon. They're in fellowship with him. If he doesn't forgive, he'll destroy that bond with those men. You see, you don't do things in isolation. If you hold a grudge, you fracture your fellowship.
Finally, forgiveness is motivated by
6. The recognition that I must be empowered by the grace of God.
Verse 25
That's Paul's final words and he puts the quill down and what he is saying is, "Philemon, I just want to remind you that in order to do this you're going to have the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." You can't do it on your own. Human nature couldn't forgive this offense. This familiar benediction is really a prayer and not very general here but very specific that divine grace may be granted to Philemon and all his family and the church at Colossae, all of you, so that you can forgive Onesimus.
Paul is asking what is not possible in the flesh because the flesh wants vengeance. What is not possible by the law because the law wants justice.
But what is possible by grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, working with your spirit, your inner man. That's the same grace that allowed Christ to forgive. Paul says may you have that same grace to forgive that allowed Christ to forgive.
Those are the motivations. You must forgive. Why? You owe a debt you could never pay. You can bless the saints. You can obey God. You can fulfill your accountability to your spiritual leaders. You can keep the fellowship intact. And you can do it in the power of the grace of Christ who forgave you.
That's the end of the book, that's not the end of the story. How did it end? No doubt Philemon forgave Onesimus. Paul was released from that imprisonment. Made many trips. Surely one of them was to Colossae and to the house of Philemon.
He did go east, even though originally he thought he wanted to go west. You remember about six years before he wrote this letter he wrote Romans and he said, "I'm coming and after I get there I'm going to leave you and go west to Spain," Romans 15:22 to 24. In the intervening years his plans had changed. He was in Rome, but he decided, "I'm not going to Spain, I'm not going to conquer new territory, I've got to go back and fix some old territory."
When he came out of that first imprisonment, he couldn't go west because he had to go and fix some of the churches because they had fallen into sin. And one of the places he must have gone was Colossae and one of the houses he must have visited, of course cause that's where the church met, was Philemon's. And so he must have found out.
Bible scholars will tell you it's not likely that this book would have found its way into the New Testament canon if Philemon hadn't forgiven Onesimus because it would have left Philemon to appear for all of human history as a godly virtuous wonderful man and if that were not the case then there would not have been the Spirit of God's purpose to leave this book in the text to give a false impression about that man. So the fact that God included this in the canon means also that God wonderfully moved to accomplish this in the life of Philemon and Onesimus.
The whole church must have known about the letter. I mean, the whole church, not just at Colossae. Because it was an inspired book and it got circulated everywhere. And it was one of the great stories of the apostolic age and we can be sure that there would be something somewhere to say it never happened if it never happened. But it stands as a testimony to forgiveness and must have been responded to.
Just as a footnote, history records that some time after this a man became the pastor of the church at Ephesus and his name was Onesimus. Could it be the same man? If so, we certainly know the wonderful power of forgiveness. Forgiveness is powerful, that's partly why that story is here. Forgiveness impacts people.
Let me update the story.
As you know, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, at 7:55 A.M. on a cloudless Sunday. In two hours 2,403 Americans were dead, 1,178 were wounded, 169 U.S. aircraft were totally destroyed, three massive ships sunk and 18 others damaged.
This incredible attack was led by a 39‑year‑old Japanese top gun pilot, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida whose life hero was Adolf Hitler. He was the voice of the shout, “Tora, Tora, Tora”. In all, he led 183 Japanese airplanes into the harbor at Honolulu and devastated thousands of men and a whole nation and triggered the massive death that came about through American atomic retaliation as well as conventional weaponry. His plane was hit numerous times as he came and went from Pearl Harbor, but he survived.
Listen to his account of that day and his life as told in his book, “From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha”.
After the war was over he was besieged with memories of death. He decided to become somewhat of a recluse and so he took up farming near Osaka. It gave him time to think. He focused increasingly on the problem of peace and he decided in the midst of his guilt and worry over all that had been done in the war to write a book. He determined that the title of the book would be No More Pearl Harbors. He would urge the world to devote itself to pursuing peace.
But he struggled in vain to find a principle by which peace could work. For years he tried to find the principle that would let him write the book, but couldn't find it. He couldn't find anything in the religions of Japan, the philosophies of the world.
There the story takes a dramatic change. The story goes like this. The first report came from a friend, a lieutenant who had been captured by the Americans and incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp in Colorado. Fuchida saw his name in a newspaper on a list of POWs who were returning to Japan.
He determined to visit him. When they met they spoke of many things. Then Fuchida asked the question upper most in his mind: how did the Americans treat you in the POW camp? His friend said, "We were treated well." Then he told Fuchida a story which he said made an immense impression upon him and on every prisoner in the American camp.
"Something happened at the camp where I was interred," he said, "which has made it possible for us who were in that camp to forego all our resentment and hatred and to return with a forgiving spirit and a feeling of light‑heartedness instead."
Fuchida said, "What is that?" The former prisoner said to him, "There was a young American girl named Margaret Peggy Covell whom they judged to be about 20 years old who came to the camp on a regular basis doing all she could for the prisoners. She brought things to them they might enjoy, such as magazines and newspapers. She looked after their sick and she was constantly helping them in every way.
They received an immense shock, however, when they asked her why she was so concerned to help these Japanese prisoners. She answered, “Because my parents were killed by the Japanese army.”
Early on Sunday morning, Dec. 19, 1943, Japanese soldiers were sighted approaching Hopevale from several directions.
There were 11 missionaries and one child that were in the area when the Japanese soldiers arrived. The women and children were overtaken and all surrendered. They were told that they would be put to death the next day. Jimmy Covell, Peggy’s dad, a former missionary to Japan before the war, pleaded with the soldiers in their language. The leader of the battalion seemed to be influenced by the appeal and radioed his headquarters for orders.
The answer came about noon the next day, Dec. 20, instructing that the mandate be carried out. The Covells insisted that they had nothing to do with the war, but the soldiers would not listen. Finally, the missionaries asked for time to pray. This request was granted. The little group formed a circle and prayed together. After about an hour the missionaries came forward, singing a hymn and saying they were ready. One by one, each adult was led to the mountain top and beheaded. The children were stabbed to death.
And yet here was Peggy Covell working among the Japanese prisoners because her parents had been killed by them. That statement was incomprehensible to the Japanese because in their society no offense could be greater than the murder of one's parents. The Japanese consider blood revenge a great moral duty. A captive awaiting death never forgives his executioners, but instead prays to be born again seven times to exact revenge in each life. Also, his sons and daughters lived to take revenge.
So Peggy tried to explain her motives. At first she had been furious with grief and indignation; thoughts of her parents' last hours of life filled her with great sorrow.
She envisioned them trapped, wholly at the mercy of their captors with no way out. She saw the merciless brutality of the soldiers, she saw them facing their Japanese executioners and falling lifeless to the ground on that far off Philippine mountain.
Then Peggy began to consider her parents' selfless love for the Japanese people. Gradually she became convinced that they had forgiven the people God had called them to love and serve. Then it occurred to her that if her parents had died without bitterness or rancor toward their executioners, why should her attitude be any different?
Should she be filled with hatred and vengeful feelings when they had been filled with love and forgiveness? Therefore Peggy chose the path of love and forgiveness. At the time, she was a sociology major at Keuka College in New York. Nearby was a POW camp housing Japanese prisoners of war. She decided to minister to the Japanese prisoners in the nearby camp as a proof of her sincerity.
Fuchida was touched by the story. But he was especially impressed with the possibility that it was exactly what he had been searching for, a principle sufficient to be a basis for peace, the principle was a forgiving love.
Could that be the principle upon which the message of his projected book, No More Pearl Harbors could be based?
But God wasn’t through with Mitsuo Fuchida yet. Listen to his account of the story:
As I got off the train one day in Tokyo's Shibuya Station, I saw an American named Jake DeShazer distributing literature. When I passed him, he handed me a pamphlet entitled I Was a Prisoner of Japan. Can you imagine that? Here was the one who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, involved right at that time with the trials on atrocities committed against war prisoners.
And on that day, Mitsuo Fuchida took that little pamphlet. What he read was Jake DeShazer’s testimony.
On that Sunday while Fuchida was in the air over Pearl Harbor, Jake DeShazer had been on K.P. duty in an Army camp in California. When the radio announced the sneak demolishing of Pearl Harbor, he hurled a potato at the wall and shouted, "Jap, just wait and see what we'll do to you!"
One month later he volunteered for a secret mission with the Jimmy Doolittle Squadron -- a surprise raid on Tokyo from the carrier Hornet. On April 18, 1942, DeShazer was one of the bombardiers, and was filled with elation at getting his revenge. After the bombing raid, they flew on towards China, but ran out of fuel and were forced to parachute into Japanese-held territory. The next morning, DeShazer found himself a prisoner of Japan.
During the next forty long months in confinement, DeShazer was cruelly treated. He recalls that his violent hatred for the Japanese guards almost drove him insane at one point. But after twenty-five months there in Nanking, China, the U.S. prisoners were given a Bible to read.
DeShazer, not being an officer, had to let the others use it first. Finally, it came his turn -- for three weeks. There in the Japanese P.O.W. camp, he read and read and eventually came to understand that the book was more than an historical classic. Its message became relevant to him right there in his cell. Finally he wrote in that little pamphlet, "The miracle of conversion took place June 8, 1944."
The dynamic power of Christ which Jake DeShazer accepted into his life changed his entire attitude toward his captors. His hatred turned to love and concern, and he resolved that should his country win the war and he be liberated, he would someday return to Japan to introduce others to this life-changing book. And he did just that. After some training at Seattle Pacific College, he returned to Japan as a missionary.
Fuchida was deeply impressed with what he read in that little tract. In fact, he said, “DeShazer’s story was something I could not explain. Neither could I forget it. The peaceful motivation I had read about was exactly what I was seeking. Since the American had found it in the Bible, I decided to purchase one myself, despite my traditionally Buddhist heritage.
In the ensuing weeks, I read this book eagerly. I came to the climactic drama -- the Crucifixion. I read in Luke 23:34 the prayer of Jesus Christ at His death: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." I was impressed that I was certainly one of those for whom He had prayed. The many men I had killed had been slaughtered in the name of patriotism, for I did not understand the love which Christ wishes to implant within every heart.
Right at that moment, I seemed to meet Jesus for the first time. I understood the meaning of His death as a substitute for my wickedness, and so in prayer, I requested Him to forgive my sins and change me from a bitter, disillusioned ex-pilot into a well-balanced Christian with purpose in living.
That date, April 14, 1950, became the second "day to remember" of my life. On that day, I became a new person. My complete view on life was changed by the intervention of the Christ I had always hated and ignored before. Soon other friends beyond my close family learned of my decision to be a follower of Christ, and they could hardly understand it.
Big headlines appeared in the papers: "Pearl Harbor Hero Converts to Christianity." Old war buddies came to visit me, trying to persuade me to discard "this crazy idea." Others accused me of being an opportunist, embracing Christianity only for how it might impress our American victors.
But time has proven them wrong. As an evangelist, I have traveled across Japan and the Orient introducing others to the One Who changed my life. I believe with all my heart that those who will direct Japan -- and all other nations -- in the decades to come must not ignore the message of Jesus Christ. Youth must realize that He is the only hope for this troubled world.
Though my country has the highest literacy rate in the world, education has not brought salvation. Peace and freedom -- both national and personal -- come only through an encounter with Jesus Christ.
I would give anything to retract my actions of twenty-nine years ago at Pearl Harbor, but it is impossible. Instead, I now work at striking the death-blow to the basic hatred which infests the human heart and causes such tragedies. And that hatred cannot be uprooted without assistance from Jesus Christ.
One more story, and I’m through. Many of you in this room knew a precious lady named Marilyn Davis. She spent 47 years in a wheelchair as a product of her polio. She passed away in November of 2005. In August of that year, she sent me an e-mail that I’ve kept for all these years. I had preached a message that dealt with forgiveness and how it is a decision that we have to make. And in response to that message she sent me this:
Dear Bro. Terry,
“I was blessed by your sermon last Sunday. It was great to have a Biblical example of a process that I have experienced. I've given this testimony several times at our women's meetings but don't think you've heard it. Thank you for bringing us God's word on situations that we've experienced.
I was born in 1934 and born again and baptized at 11. I graduated and married at 17, had a baby at 22, Polio at nearly 23 and divorced at 29. A lot of other things happened in those years but I'm here to talk about what I've learned about forgiveness.
The day I got the divorce papers I cried like my heart was broken. Years later after thinking about it
I realized some of those tears were from a broken ego. In no time my ex had re-married and that just deepened my feelings of rejection. I had a lot of bitterness and anger which I kept hidden with a smile. I resented that he could go on with his life and I was stuck in a wheelchair with not much hope for a normal life.
I was a carnal Christian most of those years of my marriage but had started seeking to understand what it meant to be a Christian other than going to Heaven when I died. One or two years after the divorce I had a close encounter with the love of Jesus and I fell in love with Him. When you love someone you want to please him and I learned that forgiveness was a requirement for those who love God. I had a choice. Either keep the resentment and lose my fellowship with God or forgive and enjoy His presence.
When I realized the consequences of choosing resentment, I prayed that God would forgive my husband for hurting me and forgive me for resenting him. It wasn't long before the accuser dropped this thought, "You haven't forgiven him, look how you feel when you think about him." So, I'd pray again. The accuser kept coming back pointing out my feelings until one day when two friends were at my house for our weekly prayer time.
I told them how I felt and how I'd prayed many times and asked them to pray with me again. I noted the day and hour and prayed for the last time that all he had done and all that I had done would be thrown in God's sea of forgetfulness. I forgave him.
Sure enough, the accuser came back with those thoughts, but this time I spoke out loud and said that feelings can lie but God's Word is the truth
[Matt.6:14 "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you"] and I had forgiven him on that certain day and time. He left and came back later and I told him the same thing again. His visits were fewer and fewer as I stood my ground until he finally shut up. Ephesians 6 speaks of the full armour of God and prayer. The end of verse 13 says, "having done all, stand" and I did.
My healing was begun when I confessed my sin of unforgiveness to my two friends. ["Confess your faults one to another that you might be healed" James 5:16] also ["If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" 1 John 1:9]; [Matthew 5:44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.] I once heard a preacher define our enemy as anyone who disturbs our peace.
My healing was completed sometime later when I prayed for God's blessings on my ex and his wife as a couple. Job's friends didn't act like friends but the scripture says in [42:10 "And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before"]. I was completely healed of feelings of bitterness and resentment when I prayed for them to have a successful marriage.
Isn't it wonderful that when we obey God, He will do in us what we cannot do for ourselves. That's His grace.”
Jake DeShazer, the hate-filled American soldier bent on revenge, became a Christian and a missionary spending thirty years as a missionary to Japan.
Mitsuo Fuchida, devotee of Adolf Hitler became a Christian and evangelist. He wrote his book. You can look at it in the library today. The title of it, From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha. And he and Jake DeShazer became close friends preaching together in Japan.
And Marilyn Davis, the bitter polio victim and divorced mom, although already a Christian, came to understand the power of forgiveness and how it will revolutionize your life.
The power of forgiveness was designed by God to affect the world. The Holy Spirit knew it, God knew it, Paul knew it, Philemon needed to know it and you and I need to know it and that's why this book is here.
Let's pray.
