Even when you can’t see the results — though the situation may not clear up entirely or get any better at all — you can still know that you’ve done what God has required of you. You can continue to forgive as His grace and love flow through you. And you can walk in peace — His peace.
— Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Forgiveness, p. 100
We sometimes feel that, if we forgive someone, justice will not be served. They’ll get off scot-free. We’ll be doing little more than giving them permission to do wrong again, seeing how easily we let them get away with it this time.
From a human perspective, this makes sense. But our minds need to be renewed to think God’s way. According to God’s Word, wrongdoers will get their just due. But we’re not the ones responsible to mete out the penalty….
Letting the offender off your hook doesn’t mean he’s off God’s hook. Forgiveness releases the accused from your custody and turns him over to God — the righteous Judge — the one and only One who is both able and responsible for meting out justice.
And so what feels like the height of unfairness, what seems to be nothing more than giving our offender the pass, actually becomes for us a step of freedom….
But listen to Joseph’s response to his distraught brothers: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?” (Genesis 50:19 NIV).
What wise, humble words! Am I in the place of God? Is it my job to make you pay for what you’ve done? Do I really want the added burden of this after all I’ve been through already? Isn’t it foolish to think that revenge could be as sweet as advertised — sweet enough to make up for the pain of all these years?
— Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Forgiveness, p. 92-94
While forgiveness is indeed costly, it is not beyond the means of those who have Christ’s life flowing within them. When God tells us to love our enemies, He also gives us the love to go along with the command.
Yes, you can do this… because He can do this….
And so because He has forgiven us — and because of His boundless life which now indwells us — what offense is too great for us to forgive?
— Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Forgiveness, p. 90-92
Instead of taking someone else’s word on what God wants us to do, what possible harm can come from taking God’s hand and simply asking?
— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 66
Those who believe in themselves, and trust in the moment, are those who find life most enjoyable. They have learned that the past is a place to store memories, not regrets; that the future should be full of promise, not apprehension. And the present is all we need.
— Leo Buscaglia, Born for Love, p. 266
Our aim is not to keep our child’s ego from getting mad at us — we are not anxiously building a relationship with our child. And certainly we are not building a child. We are gently brushing away the dust from an ancient glory, so that we both may stare in awe at what God has already made.
— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 65
Through reading literature, you see, I coexperience others’ struggles and occasional joys. Great literature grows me.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 75
Every child will try out an unhappy approach to life from time to time. We must be wise and not let this go too far. Don’t react impulsively; act from your quiet knowledge of this child. You are the advocate for his inner strength. You step in and say no because you see that now he can do better. From your intuition and calm perception, you see that he has learned all he can from the mistake and now can use a firm hand to guide him.
— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 64
There is no story without conflict, I tell would-be story writers. Universal truth is ratified, in literature as in life, not through a character’s mere mindless affirmations of it but through the lifelong study that comes from doubting and challenging and searching and returning to the problem again and again.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 73
Have as few nos as possible. But do have a few. A small child feels cuddled by a few well-chosen nos.
— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 64