September 23, 2011
By letting go, the offended refuses to let herself be held captive by the offender's unwillingness to repent.
Carolyn Holderread Heggen
Canadian Christian Psychologist
To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life - to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son - how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it means to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
(Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis
Into The Wardrobe
It is impossible for a man to be freed from the habit of sin before he hates it, just as it is impossible to receive forgiveness before confessing his trespasses...
Ignatius
Biography
Spoken forgiveness, no matter how heartfelt, works best when we do not demand the response we want. I mean that when we tell people we forgive them, we must leave them free to respond to our good news however they are inclined. If the response is not what we hoped for, we can go home and enjoy our own healing in private.
Lewis B. Smedes
Wiki
We ought not to keep score of the number of times others have hurt us. God keeps records, and vengeance belongs to him.
Lehman Strauss
Biography
Forgiveness is God's invention for coming to terms with a world in which people are unfair to each other and hurt each other deeply. He began by forgiving us. And He invites us all to forgive each other.
Lewis B. Smedes
Obituary
Assuredly there is but one way in which to achieve what is not merely difficult but utterly against human nature: to love those who hate us, to repay their evil deeds with benefits, to return blessings for reproaches. It is that we remember not to consider men's evil intention but to look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.
John Calvin
Biography
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Restoring Relationships: The Importance of Forgiving and Being Forgiven By Ralph A. Gwinn In the process of becoming like Christ, there is one essential element that is often overlooked. Because we never get to the place where we no longer sin against God and against one another, forgiveness is essential to maintaining forward motions. In a very real sense, each of us is God's "great work," and He continues to work to make us better likenesses of Christ, both as individuals and together as the Body of Christ. But God's "problem" is that we aren't always as eager for that likeness as He is, and so we drag our feet. Some people even refuse to let Him start the process with them. This book is an attempt to help us understand what is involved in forgiveness, with a view to enriching our lives with God and with one another. |
Forgiveness brings freedom - freedom from being controlled by the past, freedom from the emotional ties to the offender, freedom from the continual inner conflicts of bitterness and hate, freedom to become whole and enjoy the fullness of life.
Jeanette Vought
God forgave us without any merit on our part; therefore we must forgive others, whether or not we think they merit it.
Lehman Strauss
Biography
Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.
Anonymous
Many people are afraid to forgive because they feel they must remember the wrong or they will not learn from it. The opposite is true. Through forgiveness, the wrong is released from its emotional stranglehold on us so that we can learn from it. Through the power and intelligence of the heart, the release of forgiveness brings expanded intelligence to work with the situation more effectively.
David McArthur
The most miserable prison in the world is the prison we make for ourselves when we refuse to show mercy. Our thoughts become shackled, our emotions are chained, the will is almost paralyzed. But when we show mercy, all of these bonds are broken, and we enter into a joyful liberty that frees us to share God's love with others.
Warren W. Wiersbe
Biography and Daily Devotional
We implore the mercy of God, not that He may leave us at peace in our vices, but that He may deliver us from them.
Blaise Pascal
Biography
God has cast our confessed sins into the depths of the sea, and He's even put a 'No Fishing' sign over the spot.
Dwight L. Moody
Biography
We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.
(Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis
Into The Wardrobe
To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life - to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son - how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it means to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
(Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis
Into The Wardrobe
Forgiveness is the only way to break the cycle of blame--and pain--in a relationship...It does not settle all questions of blame and justice and fairness...But it does allow relationships to start over. In that way, said Solzhenitsyn, we differ from all animals. It is not our capacity to think that makes us different, but our capacity to repent, and to forgive.
Philip Yancey
Biography
Unforgiveness is like a scratch on an old record. The song never goes on to the end, it keeps the beautiful music yet to be released unheard and all that resounds are the same old three or four chords again and again and again.
Katherine Walden
I Lift My Eyes Web Ministries
When you give up vengeance, make sure you are not giving up on justice. The line between the two is faint, unsteady, and fine...Vengeance is our own pleasure of seeing someone who hurt us getting it back and then some. Justice, on the other hand, is secure when someone pays a fair penalty for wronging another even if the injured person takes no pleasure in the transaction. Vengeance is personal satisfaction. Justice is moral accounting...Human forgiveness does not do away with human justice.
Lewis B. Smedes
Obituary
Forgiveness is the oil of relationships.
Josh McDowell
Website
Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note - torn in two and burned up, so that it can never be shown against one.
Henry Ward Beecher
Archives
I firmly believe a great many prayers are not answered because we are not willing to forgive someone.
Dwight L. Moody
Biography
Charles Williams has said of the Lord's Prayer, "No word in English carries a greater possibility of terror than the little word 'as' in that clause." What makes the 'as' so terrifying? The fact that Jesus plainly links our forgiven-ness by the Father with our forgiving-ness of fellow human beings. Jesus' next remark could not be more explicit: 'If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.'
Philip Yancey
Biography
If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying "Peace, peace," where is no peace; if I forget the poignant word "Let love be without dissimulation" and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
Amy Carmichael
Biography and Bibliography
Those who say they will forgive but can't forget, simply bury the hatchet but leave the handle out for immediate use.
Dwight L Moody
Brief Biography
If I cast up a confessed, repented, and forsaken sin against another, and allow my remembrance of that sin to colour my thinking and feed my suspicions, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
Amy Carmichael
Biography And Bibliography
Such phrases as "I forgive you," "I release you from retribution for your deeds," are very powerful. They are words of your power. A tremendously powerful image is that you are anointed as a peacemaker. You have the power to bring peace into your world. That is enormous power. No longer the victim, you have reclaimed your agency (and sometimes the life of the offender).
Anonymous
Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God's wisdom, nor our infirmity God's omnipotence.
John of Kronstadt
Brief Biography
Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all; forgiving means to pardon that which is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all.
Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
American Chesterton Society
Quotes on Receiving God's Forgiveness and Forgiving Others
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