This is a post I made to my old blog about a year ago...  It just seemed relevant today for some people in my life...  The funny thing is, I cannot even remember who I was mad at when I wrote this!!!!  I love God and how He works.  I am sure at the time, I would have believed that I would be angry at the person for a long time and now forgiveness has freed me up from the burden!!!

Here is one of the things I LOVE about God!  He ALWAYS finds me right where I am.  I have had an issue with forgiving someone and this morning before church I was having breakfast with Keith, and our friends Jennifer and Rajeeve.  I asked them to pray for me that I would work through my unforgiveness.  I knew that all three would pray for me but even as I asked them, my heart was still holding on to the desire to get even, to make this person hurt as much as they had hurt me. 


Here is the thing about unforgiveness, it consumes you and your thoughts.  You spend all your time thinking of witty comebacks and hurtful things and you end up missing all the wonderful things that are going on in your life.

I really believe that unforgiveness is one of satan's sharpest and most used tools.

It robs joy from every aspect of our lives and fills our hearts with darkness.

And the ironic thing about it all, is as we spend all our mental energy planning what sassy thing we can say to strike at the hearts of the offenders, then person who hurt our  feelings just lives their life, oblivious to all that is going on.  Unforgiveness really just hurts the person who has already been hurt.....

So we walked into the service at church and there were the communion tables, all set up and pretty.  I sighed and looked at Keith and said, "I can't take communion while I am still so mad."

 Keith:  "Well, you better get over it then!"

So we had a wonderful worship and I was just overwhelmed with just how much God loves me.  We had a great message (not related to this but awesome) and then it was time for communion.  And what song do they play? 

Amazing Grace. 

It is hard to sing the words of that song...think about the awesome sacrifice that Jesus made for us...think about all the really bad things I do every day... think about the forgiveness that I experience every day due to His sacrifice and be petty about some off handed comment.

My heart sings for joy at all God teaches me every day.  My heart sings for joy at the freedom I have to forgive.  My heart sings for joy that I have been forgiven.