You can see into the hearts of every human being. I was quite helpless.įinally, it occurred to me-why not let God help? So I continued the prayer: I first tried to face it on my own: “Okay, now I’m going to stop thinking about this and I’m going to forgive this person from the heart.” However, every time I tried the “solo method,” I found about a half second of peace followed by an intense burst of anger. Finally, it occurred to me that this was only hurting me, and furthermore, it might cause me to say something I would regret so I had to face it. Instead of taking the hint from God, I chose to stew in my anger. In fact, my anger began to grow.Įvery time I opened my breviary, this person’s face suddenly appeared. Even after I had redressed the criticism in writing, I felt no relief. When someone called this to my attention, I was quite angry. But a few days later, he was not only critical of the paper, but also of me. When I had publicly read the paper, I had given ample opportunity for questions and had even submitted the paper to selected individuals before reading it. I had written a philosophical paper and a colleague criticized it behind my back. I remember the time I discovered this prayer. You take care of it.”Ī Time I Discovered the Power of Praying for Your Enemies This prayer has helped me immensely in this regard: Without forgiveness, the reliving of a scenario seems to get worse with every self-retelling. When I am in a “non-forgiving mood,” I tend to exaggerate all the bad features of memory, omit all the good features of the perpetrator, and attempt to construct a scenario whereby the demon-other has perpetrated the unforgivable-then I get good and mad. The memory of an offense seems to mushroom in its proportions and emotional discharge. In any case, one thing is clear: without forgiving, forgetting is impossible. As you know, forgiving-the intention to let go of an offense intentionally and unjustly perpetrated against us-takes far less time than forgetting. If one party does let go (forgives), the cycle frequently devolves and forgiving eventually turns into forgetting. Why? Because violence begets violence, vengeance begets vengeance, resentment begets resentment, and the cycle will continue and grow so long as one of the offended parties does not let go. It will probably come as no surprise that Jesus mentions this more often than any other commandment, injunction, or prescription in the New Testament. 18: 21-22) and to ask the Father to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Mt. Jesus enjoins us to pray for our enemies and forgive one another from the heart He tells us to forgive seventy times seven times (Mt.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |