Imagine you are Chris Rock and you get slapped on live television with the whole world watching. You are embarrassed in front of hundreds of celebrities. Then the person that slaps you apologizes, would you forgive? Forgiveness has some spiritual connotations and some say “forgiveness is divine” hence this article discusses the spiritual meaning of forgiveness.
Importance of forgiveness in the Bible
All spiritual traditions exalt the value of forgiveness, but many still consider it a near-impossible aspiration. Just start anywhere. Look sincerely at the pain you cannot forgive. Identify related feelings you may have, such as anger, denial, guilt, shame, or embarrassment. Imagine what it would be like to live without this humiliation. Then just let it go.
Other steps toward healing may be necessary. Acknowledging your contribution to the conflict, correcting, changing behavior, engaging with the community – but letting go of your claims, and sometimes opposing, yourself is a place to start.
We all know the real symptoms that forgiveness can reduce – feeling so hurt that we want revenge, constantly mulling over a long list of petty complaints, feeling guilty about not knowing how to turn to someone we’ve offended, fearing that the injury could happen again. Bitterness and stubbornness are also a sign that you need to forgive.
Compared to the restrictive behavior that usually creates a wall between us and others, forgiveness is liberation. This means that we can get out of our previous position and move on with our lives. Best of all, it gives us the opportunity to be at peace with our neighbors and with God so that we can once again feel part of the larger community of spiritual life.
True forgiveness is something that only God can give. This is a spiritual characteristic. Only God forgives us when we ask. People usually find it difficult to forgive someone who has hurt them be it physically or emotionally and whether or not that person is a relative, friend, or stranger. Forgiveness does not come easily and that is the only reason they call it a spiritual attribute.
Forgiveness is divine because it requires patience and a lot of tolerance. Above all, a kind and
mature heart to let it go. Do not disturb or injure it, although you can crush and destroy it.
It is not easy to forgive. Especially if someone treated you unfairly. Therefore, forgiveness sometimes seems like going against what human nature allows since as humans, we would rather begrudge an offender as opposed to forgiving them.
When we forgive, we act from a point that transcends our human urge to hold grudges. By forgiving, we overcome our animal instinct to want to be angry. We are about a place of greater wisdom; some might call it “spiritual”.
So, it is human to make mistakes because we all make mistakes. Forgiveness is spiritual because it requires us to go beyond our erring human nature and act from a place of greater wisdom and compassion.
And the Bible admonishes us to forgive one another just like God through his Son, Jesus Christ. He has forgiven us for the many sins that we have committed and still commit against him. The New Testament book of Ephesians 4:32 says the following words: “And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.”
For this reason, those that want to have a personal relationship with God need to have a forgiving heart but note that this forgiving heart is not embedded in our nature but comes from God himself once we have a relationship with him and as a result, one cannot claim to a Christian if they do not forgive one another is the Spiritual Meaning of Forgiveness.
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