FORGIVENESS OF GOD (Part II)

By Odon Bulamba (20th September 2002)

God teaches us that divine forgiveness is to forget. Someone who doesn’t want to forget is the person who wants a swollen heart. When a man’s heart is swelling the pressure will one day make the heart explode, and when this happens hatred comes, distance comes and there will be no contact between the two parties. But God asks us to forgive and forget. Whoever doesn’t forgive will not be forgiven, Mark 11:25.

God asks us to get close to the person who has done wrong against us. If you don’t warn the one who has done wrong, their blood will be on your head. If you say I’ll wait until he comes to me, maybe they will die in their sin. Maybe their conscience will die. We must go to people and ask them to confess their sins and find forgiveness. Nobody invited Jesus to earth. Christians today just wait for others to come to them and ask for forgiveness. Some Christians are what I call Christian bosses in armchairs who wait for reports. Jesus had the humility to leave heaven and come to work on earth.

If you show Colleen more joy to see her than Andrew, how will Andrew feel? Is there love? There is prejudice in our actions.

Forgiveness is not only for others. I have to have pity on myself and forgive myself first. You have to weigh up your actions, is what you have done been forgiven? God have pity. Because you like your soul you have to ask God to help you to keep your soul. That’s why Jesus didn’t sin because each time He would think of His soul. If people can’t forgive themselves they won’t make progress. You must evaluate yourself.

The first treasure is our soul and we have to protect our soul because God loves it. If you love yourself then tell yourself that one day you’ll enter the kingdom of heaven. You will ask God, ‘Why do I do that?’ Do I have pity on my soul? I forgive myself for what I have done. People who were sick were taken to Jesus and the first thing He would say was, ‘your sins are forgiven’, even if they didn’t ask for it. Because it’s a free gift God gave us, give forgiveness without distinction of race and sex and with that you’ll see miracles. When someone comes to ask for your forgiveness it’s not up to you to judge. Jesus would say, ‘your sins are forgiven’. We have to learn to forgive without discussion. Don’t ask questions because the more you ask the more they will feel uncomfortable. To forgive is not to get information, but to forgive is to sort out problems and finish with it.

The Bible says that if someone makes a mistake go and speak to that person about God’s love. If he doesn’t know God’s love, teach him and say that God doesn’t like what he has done but don’t ask him to explain what he has done. If you go deep with a child who has for example stolen $5, “why did you steal?” maybe he doesn’t know about the devil, maybe he will lie. Sometimes we go in depth but don’t achieve our objective and end up creating more problems. If I ask forgiveness from you but you judge and want to know more about the details, you will make me feel uncomfortable and I will not ask you again for forgiveness. I won’t come to you again and this will put a barrier between you and me.