Forgiveness is you setting yourself free

When someone hurts us, we tend to hold grudges and keep the memory of the pain intact in our mind and heart. Somehow, this is our way of protecting our hearts from being hurt again. The problem with this is the fact that we end up being imprisoned by our past, and the longer we keep these grudges, the deeper the imprisonment becomes. Unforgiveness can take on many forms. It can be a silent war we wage on another by not talking or ignoring, and being angry and hateful to the one who offended us. This gradually makes us bitter and hard. Our hearts harden to the point of rejecting any idea of ever forgiving the person who hurt us. Forgiveness is the letting go of the hurt and the pain which our hearts naturally reacted with when someone wronged us. This closed our hearts in an attempt not to be hurt again. When we forgive, we set ourselves free from the prison of hate and grudges. It is first done to help us move on and prevent us from dwelling on the past. The person who offended us could have moved on already, but if we keep holding onto the grudges and pain, we end up unable to move on by imprisoning ourselves behind the bars of unforgiveness. To forgive is to set yourself free so you can move on with your life. Jesus said we must forgive others even as He has forgiven us. When asked how many times we must forgive someone who wronged us, He said 70 times 7! This sounds like an invitation to encourage people to offend us! But the truth is this represents the number of times we will need forgiveness ourselves! If God has forgiven us for all the sins we committed against Him, He asks that we also forgive. Can you forgive someone who wronged you, or do you prefer to keep inside the prison of grudges and hurt?