Forgiveness vs. Foolishness

"But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." -Mark 11:26  Jesus was explaining the importance of forgiveness even with our prayer lives.  Forgiveness is essential for the Christian in every aspect of our walk with God.  None of us are without fault, therefore how can we withold forgiveness?  Forgiveness releases favor and blessings into our lives.  So why do so many of us have a problem with forgiving?  The hurt and pain of sin and transgession towards us makes it feel hard to forgive at times.  This however, can be used as a point of power and Love.  There are so many instances of forgiveness in the Bible. Forgiveness is mentioned in several books including Matthew, Psalms, Mark, Colossians, Ephesians, 2 Corinthians, Daniel, 1 Samuel, Romans and many others.  While forgiveness is a key part of life to be a successful Christian, we must not be foolish where this is concerned. So what's the difference between forgiving and being foolish?  Let's go a little more in-depth with the subject.

Forgiveness
First of all we know forgiveness is an expression of Love, because Jesus expressed Love for us when he bore all of our sins on the cross which cleansed us from sins both past, present, and future for all-time.  Since Jesus died for us and returned with the price paid (with his precious blood) for us we can call on him when we sin "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."" -- 1 John 1:9. Since Jesus forgave we should be like him and forgive also.  No matter how painful it may seem, we must always forgive.  This is something many of us may have struggled with in the past, but must overcome in order to be fruitful in our lives and our walk with God. 

When we do not forgive, we give people power over us.  When someone that we have strife against comes around we allow our entire mood and mindset to change to that of hatred towards them.  We even allow them to ruin our entire day and they may not have spoken one word to us at the time. Our blood pressure may even rise when certain individuals that have wronged us come around and this behavior is is unhealthy and ungodly. How can our blessings flow if we have hatred in our hearts?  It is so easy and tempting to speak negatively of someone that has caused us pain.  We should not give in to this temptation though as we have been told not to do so in the word. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." --Ephesians 4:31-32. The Bible tells us that we should even get things right with each other before bringing gifts to the altar "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." --Matthew 5:23-24 

When we do not forgive our blessings are blocked.  We should not hold grudges and keep an account of wrong towards us.  "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also [do] ye. --Colossians 3:13.  So as we see from many examples from God's word, forgiving must become a part of our lives.  Everyday we will have opprtunities to either forgive or throw that away and hold anger and unforgiveness.  God wants us to choose Love and cast our cares on him.  We are not equipped to hold malice towards one another for it is destructive and deadly.  Of course Satan does not mind because he come to steal, kill, and destroy anyway --John 10:10. 

We must not give Satan any satisfaction where unforgiveness is concerned.  We must Love our enemies and do good towards them no matter how they treat us. "But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you." Luke 6:27-28. In life we have to learn to live our lives in a way that pleases the Lord.  He is not pleased with hatred and unforgiveness.  I will end this section with a few verses from Romans 12, which speaks to how we are to act towards our enemies. It is a very powerful section of scriptures. "Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but [rather] give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance [is] mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. "--Romans 12:17-21

Foolishness
Now of course we know that we should always forgive for anything no matter what.  We also know that there is power in forgiveness and that we must live a life of forgiveness, but how can we get into foolishness where this is concerned?  Well even though we must forgive, we have to understand that we are dealing with people and human nature.  A lot of times people are "sorry" for something they did, but their minds have not been renewed in that area, therefore they may do it again.  This is when our desire to help someone after we forgive them clashes with foolishness.  We have forgiven them and want to assist them in their recovery, but we do so from an unsafe distance and without full understanding.  It is almost foolish to think that we can change someone anyway.  That is why we must introduce people to the word of God and let him do the changing. 

When we try to take on the challenge of saving someone ourselves we make ourselves vulnerable to hurt and pain which makes it harder to forgive and is thus, a breeding ground for bitterness.  Allowing someone to hurt you repeatedly is foolishness.  If you know that individual has a problem, then you should get them to the right people.  I mean if you stumbled into a pit of snakes and got bitten, and then after you healed would you return to the snake pit? I hope not, because if so you are practicing foolishness, which is what some of us may be doing with the people in our lives.

Sometimes our women are really guilty of this where their men are concerned.  She may be trying to assist a man that has physically abused her and she has forgiven him, but is trying to help him.  So she stays with him and even suffers in silence, because she knows what her friends may say.  He then beats her again and again.  This is foolish behavior.  He obviously needs help that she cannot provide.  She has forgiven him and therefore, she does not owe him anything, except to love him. Women oftentimes open themselves up for more hurt and pain than they have to in the first place.  When they meet a new guy they often fall head over heels and divulge their whole life story in a few hours.  This is also foolish because you must guard your heart so that bitterness, anger, wrath and other impurities cannot enter.  The Bible tells us to "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life." --Proverbs 4:23

When you tell someone everything about you, they can use that information to hurt you.  They must earn your trust, because trust is so valuable, precious, and rare so you should not give it away haphazardly.  With this being said, if we are interacting with someone that we have interest we must keep our hearts at a distance initially until trust is established and proven.  Doing so will ensure that we do not let our hearts become damaged due to misuse from another individual.  So then, we must understand that even though we forgive no matter what, we must also do so with understanding so that abuse does not take root due to foolishness and grow into bitterness, strife, and unforgiveness.  Through Love we always have the victory!