Forgiveness - A simple look..

Forgiveness....

Will God forgive me for what I have done? Is a very popular question asked by everyone in the world..

Simple answer is YES of course as the Bible tells us.. but!

There is always a "but" when we have an answer so simple but cant accept the answer and are looking for and also look for the "as long as we do this and that and other things..

Also why does God forgive us? He loves us after all He allowed His Son to die for us to have a path back to Him and eternal life!! That is pure love!!

How do we be forgiven by God? Simple answer is in prayer but.. there is a but to this answer!!! We have to mean it from our heart.. God knows what is in our heart and if we do not mean it then we are only kidding ourselves that we are forgiven.. Also we must really try not to do it again regardless of what it is..

The Bible actually gives us a very good idea on how many times we should forgive someone..

Matthew 18:21-22

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Peter clearly asks Jesus in order to find out this information but it is not an exhauted number. Jesus is givng a large number to enforce the fact that God forgives us for all our sins so we should forgive anyone who sins against us. God has shown us grace, mercy and love. Thereforth we should show that all the time to everyone as Scripture also tells us not to judge others. God is the ultimate judge and will judge everyone to what's in the "book of life" when the time comes.

Revelation 13:8
All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast— all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.

I know people are thinking and saying "they have done something really evil towards me or someone else".. and yes remember you CAN forgive them but also hate what they have done. For example.. Love the person but hate the actions of that person. Afterall Satan has tempted everyone one of us and currently is in control of this world!

There is a difference between "forgiveness" and "forgetting"!! We will never forget what someone has done to us, those we love, or someone in the world regardless of how we found out about it. We must never truely forget it as we must protect ourselves against it and learn to help others from being hurt the same way BUT we in our forgiveness of that person we must try not to hold it against them. Even if they are not Christians and not asked God for forgiveness we must stil forgive them as they will have written it in their book of life and will find out the truth on the day of judgement. If they are Christians then they will have to ask God for forgiveness and be held accountable to Him for it.

One way of looking at forgiveness is this.. If I do not forgive OR limit the number of times I shall forgive someone/some people why should I expect God to forgive me for all the wrong I do when I ask for it?