The Face of Forgiveness

Elizabeth Elliot; Abraham Lincoln; Nelson Mandela; Corrie ten Boom; Martin Luther King, Jr.  Every one of these figures dealt with the emotional and willful issue of forgiveness head-on!  There faces are identified with reconciliation.  And, so is the face of God...through His Son Jesus Christ.  The Father's face was reflected in the beatened, bleeding face of the crucified Lord when He said while hanging on a Roman cross: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).  There's nothing more freeing and forward-thinking than deliberately embodying the spirit of forgiveness.  On the contrary, there's nothing more damaging to a person's health in every dimension than knowingly or unknowingly harboring resentment toward another.  We all need forgiveness and need to give it.  But the difficulty is intimidating and the struggle keeps us from dealing with the implications.  That's because it's a spiritual issue...which demands that we seek a higher power to enable us to grapple with what it means to forgive and how to carry it out.  The biblical characters Jacob and Esau struggled with the emphatic need to reconcile with each other.  And, they had to look up for help to "get there."  As a matter of fact, it was such a spiritual experience for them that when Jacob received acceptance and forgiveness from his brother Esau, he said these words: "For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably" (Genesis 33:10).

ARE YOU WILLING TO LOOK UP and receive help in this area of forgiveness?!?