Why We Need to Forgive at All Times
Forgiveness is one of the major conditions for answered prayers, it is so important that it appears in the Lord’s prayer as a condition that we have to meet for us to earn forgiveness from God, but it is unfortunate that as important as forgiveness is many Christians still go about harboring hatred, malice, and unforgiving spirit against others, many just believe that the situation that made them not to forgive others Is different from what the bible is talking about, and that God should understand why they cannot forgive.
The first thing that comes to mind when looking at the issue of forgiveness in the bible is that God did not attach any condition to it. There is no offence that is so great that would warrant that you should not forgive the person that has offended you, also you are not to look at re-occurrence of offences from the same person and use that to determine whether to forgive or not.
Peter asked Jesus in the book of Matthew 18 verse 22; how many times someone can offend him in a day that will make him to stop forgiving, and Jesus answered seventy times seven times. That is 490 times, that is five hundred less ten times, really nobody can offend you for that number of times in a single day, but Jesus just want us to have the understanding that we should keep forgiving, knowing that it can never be too much.
How can we obey this instruction from God? Really it is not easy to forgive when we are hurt, when our right has been trampled upon, or when we have been robbed unjustly. Nothing can be so painful when you expect God to act in a moment like that, to rain down his fire upon whoever is wicked against you, but He did not do anything, and that fellow got away with what he had done against you. The only thing you can do at that moment is to harbor unending hatred towards that fellow, and towards everyone linked to him.
When you are faced with a situation like this, the only thing that you need to allow in your mind is the thought that God wants you to forgive. Your flesh may complain and tell you to be reasonable and react, but you must not listen to the dictate of the flesh for nothing good dwells in the flesh.
The mistake some people are making in this area is that they allow the thought of what the other person has said or did to run through their mind continuously, there is no way you would allow this that you will not feel that you have to react. You must train your mind to know how to discard such thought no matter how strong they may be.
You should also learn how to pray to God in a time like this, you may be so weak that you find it difficult to focus on Him and forgive your offenders, but you can call on Him to help and strengthen you so that you will not sin against Him, our God is a merciful God who will always encourage and help those who are determined to do His will, you can be sure that He will help you.
When you forgive, you will get forgiveness when you offend others because it is what you plant that you will reap. Remember the story of the servant that borrowed a huge amount of money from his master, the king in Mathew 18:23-35. His master forgave him because he could not pay, but then he saw another fellow servant owing him just a little amount, and arrested him and threw him into jail. When the master heard about the issue, he was angry and took the wicked servant and ordered that he should be punished. That is exactly how God will feel if we fail to forgive others, if He can forgive us our greater sins that we committed against Him, and gave us His salvation, then why should we find it difficult to forgive others of their small sins towards us?
Forgiveness will take you closer to God, making it easy for you to grow in the spirit as you get more favor and blessings from God.