Have you ever played Tennis? When your opponent hits the ball at you…the only way for the game to proceed is if you hit the ball back to them…Now I realize this is an overly simplistic view of the game…and I apologize to those who take the game seriously….and this is probably why I was never on the Tennis team in school….
The harder your opponent hits the ball…the harder you must hit it in return to make sure it has the desired affect when it crosses the net…and hitting the ball as hard as you can does not end the game…. because guess what? Your opponent just hits the ball even harder right back at you! Now imagine if you refused to hit the ball back at your opponent…..?
“I will never be able to forgive them.”
“What they did is so wrong.”
“What they did just can’t be forgiven.”
“If he isn’t going to forgive me, why should I forgive him?”
“If I forgive them…they’ll just get away with what they did.”
Do these statements sound familiar? Have you ever said them yourself? Have you ever been the reason someone made these statements?
Now think about this…..what if God would have said the same thing instead of sacrificing his son so that he could forgive you? When I think about that….I think that there is nothing in my life that could ever be done against me that could ever be too much for me to forgive.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of something bad being said about us…and even though it might be terrible, I believe we can stop further bad words from being said if we just refuse to hit the ball back across the net…..
The way I see it....God saw all the things we have done wrong, and will ever do wrong, and yet, he has granted us his Grace. It’s higher than any court on this earth, it’s the final word on what we deserve, and no one could give me more……oh yeah….God has commanded us to do it!
You think you are simply forgiving someone who has done wrong against you….but what makes forgiveness so powerful, and why I think God has told us to “turn the other cheek” is while you are forgiving a wrong against you….you are actually being set free of whatever has been done against you!
“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39
Jesus was telling us to not resist evil…in other words, when we refuse to fight evil, we actually stop evil from moving forward, and there is nothing else that can be done to us and we are showing our faith in God by resisting evil.
But it sure is a temptation to hit that ball isn’t it? I mean, sometimes, a stinging reply flies out of my mouth before I can stop my tongue! But I have been learning that if I can just resist that first impulse and “bite my tongue” the tennis moment will pass…...IT WORKS!
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
If you are thinking that this is just one of those warm fuzzy kind of posts that talk about loving your brother and all that…..keep this warning in mind:
“But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:15
who knows….perhaps the only way to save myself physical pain and embarrassment if I ever found myself on a tennis court….would be to not hit the ball back……
Yes, how important to forgive as we are forgiven so much!
yes….forgiveness is a gift given to us in love and the least we should want to do is give that gift to others! Thanks for stopping by!
P.S. The name of your blog is interesting. Have you ever read Angus Bachun’s book, “Faith like Potatoes”?
I did not read his book…but I was so moved by the movie that I wanted my blog to reflect that…and I think I have watched it at least 15 times since!
Such a powerful story isn’t it?
Forgiveness is powerful. It took a malarial dream sent by YHWH in which he let me see her through my eyes, that changed everything for me. I could NOT not love her after that. Thank you for this post.
Forgiveness is so powerful …especially when we forgive others, that it indeed can change lives! Thanks for stopping by!