Total Forgiveness
by Terry H. Shanahan, Northeast Regional Minister
“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14–15
Some of our churches are experiencing a season of healing, renewal and joy. I have been privileged to visit those churches who are celebrating what God has done and is doing in their midst. In each of those situations, you don’t have to look very far back in their history to see that peace and joy were not always the case. These churches have made a decision to deal with their differences and live in peace with one another.
Conflict is not a rare thing in the Christian community. One thing I have learned is that we Christians often do no better then the world when it comes to living peacefully together. James 4:1–2 says “ What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it…” In the wake of our fighting for what we want, people get hurt, and in turn, hurting people hurt others.
To address this the CCCC has identified that one of our guiding values is to create “a culture of peacemaking and reconciliation.” To that end, we have held peacemaking seminars across the country where many have been trained in Biblical peacemaking. As of January of this year we have called Lenn Zeller as our Director of Conference Care and we are being blessed by his gifting in this area.
A recent blessing we have had in New Hampshire is for pastor and author R.T. Kendall to come for an all-day seminar, where he taught from his book, Total Forgiveness. Billed as a pastor’s day off, pastors were encouraged to come, bring their spouses and experience fellowship, food and great teaching. Many New Hampshire CCCC pastors were there, and we had a wonderful time engaging with one another. The teaching by R.T. Kendall and the exposure to his work on forgiveness, based on his own experiences of having to forgive was convicting to say the least. I was compelled to examine my own heart, as he gave us the following checklist to see if we had totally forgiven others.
If I have totally forgiven another
| __ | 1. I will tell no one what someone has done to me. 2. I will not let that person be afraid of me because I will keep no record of wrongs. 3. I will not make them feel guilt or shame them in any way. 4. I will let them save face and not rub their noses in it. 5. I will protect them from their darkest secret. 6. I will have to continue to forgive, as total forgiveness is a life sentence. 7. Total forgiveness is when you bless the person who has wronged you. |
I think with some pride I have thought of myself as a fairly forgiving person. However as I was confronted with this list, I was convicted, and I have had to search my heart to forgive as Jesus has forgiven me: TOTALLY.
