Unforgiveness: The Cause, The Symptom and The Cure.

Probably one of the hardest issues to talk about in the christian life is forgiveness. Unfortunately, it's not often preached or taught, and people like myself, live most their lives imprisoned or entangled by a deep feeling of resentment and even hatred, finding no way of escape. If you ever experienced that, you know that unforgiveness drained the life out of you. I remember that the worst thing about unforgiveness was seeing the person I was hating living a happy life, smiling and such, and I was just slowly and painfully dying. Why do we feel so guilty and ashamed when we don't forgive others? Jesus answered this question in extremely simple words: In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus tells the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, and in verse 35 He says: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses". It means that if, from the heart (words are cheap), we don't forgive, we are not been forgive by God. That's why I felt so guilty and ashamed, because God was not forgiving me, of course, because I refused to forgive others. So, for the Cause of Unforgiveness, the guilt feeling is one of the easiest symptoms to detect and of course the Cure is Forgiving. It may sound easy and cheap, but, since there is so much unforgiveness in our world, it is everything but easy and cheap. Of course if you are, like I used to be, in bondage and slave of yourself and the devil, you need deliverance and only Jesus Christ is able to do it, and since there's no magic pill, you have to fight for your freedom. The worst enemy that needs to be put to death is the giant called self, then you must submit yourself to God, then resist the devil, and the devil will flee from you. It's very interesting how satan operates: he cannot touch us, so he will find his way in us through our minds (thoughts), that's why Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5, once satan captures our thoughts, it touches our emotions (soul), then our emotions touch our spirit and our spirit touches our bodies, as it says in Proverbs 17:22. I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but as I used to have depression, I can see clearly the way it works. I was amazed when I started writing this post, because I was listening on the radio a song from Chris August called 7 x 70 (I never heard before), let me borrow some lines from his song: 7 times 70 times. If that’s the cost I’ll pay the price. 7 times 70 times. I’ll do what it takes to make it right. I thought the pain was here to stay, but forgiveness made a way. Forgiveness is not a feeling, is an attitude of the heart. Only after we decide (act) to forgive we will really forgive. As Paul talks in Philippians 2, we must to have the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus, it means that as much as Christ forgave we must forgive. For the children of God, forgiveness is not an option, is a commandment!