Forgiving, A Call To Your Heart




Copyright Millie Plastaras 9/27/2004
all rights reserved.



You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and
hate your enemies. But I say to you, love your enemies.
Pray for them who have hurt you. If you do this you will be
true children of your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:43-44

Janet and Lucy had been friends for years. They lived
next door to each other. They did things together all
the time. They baked together, they shopped together,
they played games together. And when they had children,
they bought their children over to play together. It was
a great relationship. Until one day, when Janet asked
Lucy to tell her an honest answer about a situation.
And Lucy did. And Janet became furious. It was not
the answer she had wanted! She stood up
and just let Lucy have a piece of her mind.

How dare you talk to me that way? I thought you were
my friend. No friend would say such a thing to another.

Lucy stood up and said Janet, "Didn't you ask me
specifically to tell you the truth? I only did as you asked.
I just wanted to be a help."

Janet asked Lucy to leave. When Janet's husband
came home, she told him her side of the story. And
when Janet's mother called she told her Mom her side
of the story. And Janet told the neighbors her side of the story.

Soon Lucy had become an outcast. All because she had
tried to be honest when asked a question.

One day as Janet was sitting in her house, the kids
were in school, husband at work, the house was very quiet.
Janet was absorbed in a television show that
showed people who were in different situations and
how they dealt with it. For some reason, she felt
so drawn to the show, and she could not take her
eyes off the screen.

One lady on the show was named Brenda. Brenda
was talking about a friend who had betrayed her,
and hurt her very badly. Brenda's friend Debbie had
committed adultery with Brenda's husband. It
had absolutely crushed Brenda, and broken their happy
home up.

Brenda had been raised in a Christian home, and this
situation just overwhelmed her. She knew what God had
to say, but the more she thought about her friend, the
more bitter and withdrawn she became. Soon, she
had become isolated, and cut herself off from her friends,
her church, everyone. She was angry and bitter at life,
and at her friend and husband. She was sitting in the
living room one day crying about her situation ... she
felt as if she was at the end of her rope. She was crying
and said God ... how could you let this happen to me?
I thought you were a loving God. Why did you allow this?
Soon she found herself screaming and venting, and
just raging about the things life had brought her way.

When she got through with this, she felt absolutely drained.
She became quiet, and sat down in her chair. She said
Oh God, please help me, I just feel lost in this world any more.

Brenda felt a presence in the room. She felt someone
nearby, and although no one was in the house, she
felt a calming presence close by. She felt a voice within
her say, Brenda, forgive Debbie.

Brenda stood up and said, I will never forgive her,
she took away everything I loved.

She heard that calm, persistent voice speak to her again.
Brenda forgive Debbie.

God, How can I forgive someone who has betrayed me
and robbed me of my marriage? I lost my happy
home because of her!

She heard again, Brenda forgive Debbie. If you forgive
her, you will be free, you will no longer have to carry
this heavy burden. Let it go. Forgive her.

Brenda got down on her knees that day, and asked
God to forgive her for her anger, and bitterness,
and resentment. She had much built up inside of her
heart. Not only from her husband and friend Debbie,
but from her past. Family that had really hurt her
and said things that made her feel like she was the
most unworthy person in the world. All this she
had been carrying around all these years. It had
become so heavy, so large, it was what she built
her life around. Nothing else. She was MS Victim
and the world was going to hear about it.

That day... Brenda gave up the victim side of herself.
She gave up the anger, the bitterness, the loss,
the hatred, the hurt, the loneliness and the betrayal.

She got up from her knees, and suddenly it was
as if more light was coming in this room than she
had ever seen. And she felt as if she was taking a
deep breath for the first time.

What was happening to her?
Oh, why had she allowed all these things to weigh her
down and rob her of years? It had only hurt her.
Perhaps some of her stored up bitterness had made
her husband not feel close to her, or family that could
have reconciled. Was she partly to blame?

She felt free, for the first time in years. Clean, new,
forgiven. She wanted to shout. What a glorious feeling!

Brenda made a vow that day, she would never
again allow any grudge or unkind feelings to remain
in her, no matter how much she was hurt. She learned
to lay them at the altar of Jesus, and just love the people anyway. It wasn't always easy. It was often almost
impossible, but she bowed her head and asked God for
grace to love others as He loved them. And God worked
in Brenda's heart. He eventually helped her start a ministry
to women in crisis. It grew and grew and eventually she
started giving seminars around the country helping women
heal from their past.

As the show went off Janet wrote down the number to
reach Brenda's organization. She called them, and told
someone on the prayer line, what she had gone through
and they prayed with her. And that hour, she recognized
what all her anger had done. How she had gossiped, and held
grudges, and the lives it had destroyed. Her heart felt
pricked within her. She knew she had been wrong, and
she confessed it.

That night Janet called Lucy and apologized to her
and told her she had been wrong and asked her forgiveness.
Lucy filled with tears of joy ran over to Janet's house
and embraced her and readily forgave her. She
had been praying about this situation for a long time.
The next day Janet called everyone she had gossiped to
about Lucy and told them how wrong she had been.
It wasn't easy ... but it was necessary to find healing.

This started everyone in the family to look at things differently.
All because someone...found out how to truly forgive,
and passed it on to others.

It is only when we forgive, that we can find forgiveness
and healing. Nothing is worth hanging on to. It robs
us of joy, our spiritual life, our relationships and it destroys.
It is from the enemy, to keep you tied up for years in
anger and bitterness.

Just let go. If Jesus can forgive them, then we must.
No matter what they have done. Pray for those who
persecute you or falsely accuse you or hurt you. And love
them as Jesus would have you do.

We may not always be able to be close to everyone,
but we should always be graceful and kind, and forgive,
even if they do not ask, or even if it hurts to do so.
For Christ's sake, and the sake of your soul,
we must be unencumbered by the plague of
unforgiveness.

remember
Only one life, will soon be past
Only what is done, for Christ will last