Paul wrote to the church, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19, NKJV). He is saying, “Suffer the wrong. Lay it down and move on. Get a life in the Spirit.”
However, if we refuse to forgive the hurts done to us, we have to face these consequences:
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• We’ll become guiltier than the person who inflicted our wound.
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• God’s mercy and grace toward us will be shut off. As things begin to go wrong in our lives, we won’t understand them because we’ll be in disobedience.
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• Our persecutor’s vexations against us will continue to rob us of peace. He’ll become the victor, succeeding in giving us a permanent wound.
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• Because Satan succeeds in driving us to thoughts of revenge, he’ll be able to lead us into deadlier sins. We’ll commit transgressions far worse than unforgiveness.
The writer of Proverbs advises, “The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression” (Proverbs 19:11). In other words, we’re to do nothing until our anger has subsided. We should never make a decision or follow through with any action while we are still angry.
In Matthew 5:44-45, Jesus told his followers, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
We bring glory to our heavenly Father whenever we overlook hurts and forgive the sins done to us. To do so builds character in us. When we forgive as God forgives, he will bring us into a revelation of favor and blessing that we have never known before.