foRgiVeneSs

Forgiveness (2)
By MeL Scribe, Australia

How can we find the strength to forgive?

On the cross, Jesus prayed with his dying breath, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This man, who had done no wrong in his life, had every right to demand their destruction, and every power to carry out their sentences justly. They wanted him dead, and they accomplished it, but instead of cursing them, this innocent man chose to plead for their souls, hard as their hearts were against him. Who is this Jesus guy? Why should I care about what he did or said? Maybe he was an important man, sure, but why should I be concerned with him? Yes I’ve heard of him somewhere sometime, but why should he worry me? So what if he’s such a controversial man?

Well, it looks like you missed the bit about his never doing anything wrong in his life. That’s only comprehensible if you believe that Jesus is God. There! I should have said this earlier, and it’s taken me so long to say so, but we both needed a chance to warm up to each other and to the topic at hand. Because Jesus is God, He is perfect. Everything about Him is perfect.

The road to self-discovery starts here, my friend. Either you can choose to completely reject all I have written to you and keep living your own way, or you can live this new and better life, giving God control over your life, which He already has, anyway. That’s right. Control over your life. God won’t bring you to anything you can’t get through, and He’s not going to completely and utterly annihilate you because He loves you.

Am I going too fast for you to catch onto me? I’ll strain out my ramblings. God loves you, more than anything you can possibly imagine. Well, unless you can imagine someone sending his or her son to hell to save you, which is what God sent Jesus to do, then yeah. Why would He do that? Because we have all rejected God and pushed Him away because we didn’t want Him in our lives—that is the one thing He can’t forgive. We deserve the death sentence, and to be separated from God for the rest of eternity, but Jesus took our sentence on Himself when He died for us on that cross. Every wrong thing you have ever done can be forgiven—if only you believe it.

So, you can choose to reject God for who He is and what control He actually has over your life and ignore His love for you, try to run your life in your own haphazard way, and face the consequences of being condemned by God and facing death and judgement, which I know isn’t going to be pretty. Or you can choose to submit to Jesus as your ruler, rely on His death and coming back to life, and be forgiven by God and receive His gift of eternal life.

If you want to know more, you should—you guessed it—start going to a church near you, where you can learn more about Christianity.