Forgiveness and Those Reported in the News

I know this should be quite obvious but recently I found something slowly creeping back into my life. I want to share it with you because perhaps I am not the only one. Speaking for myself, I have to live current in my forgiveness over enemies far and wide. I am not speaking about the common sources we all need to forgive to stay current and clean with God. Those are obvious. What I am talking about is those people I hear about in the news or through social media.

My particular issue of current offense is with those who are reported to be trying to destroy the fabric of our country. No, I am not going into the who shot Annie of this. You would have your offenses and I have mine, perhaps they are the same. In actuality I think we all are being groomed for this anyway. It makes us susceptible, volatile and easier to influence and if we live in unforgiveness it is deadly. But for this post I want to discuss how I have responded to these reported situations.

Forgiveness and Unforgiveness

I was getting ready for bed the other night and the Spirit showed me my heart. I have slowly become less and less forgiving of what I have seen as deep deception and the scheming of man. I began to hate and not forgive those I see as living for hatred and corruption. As a result I have become more and more volatile. Little things began to infuriate me in ways that were beyond my normal reaction. You know, like that spill of coffee which becomes a curse worthy event rather than something just to clean up. Why? Why was I so wrought up? Because I stopped holding short accounts for those offensive things I heard about.

With what the Spirit showed me I saw once again that we aren’t only destroyed in blatant ways of unforgiveness, sometimes our destruction comes covertly through a temptation to hate those we deeply disagree with. Again, I know this is obvious but if it weren’t something sneaky, it wouldn’t have been a problem. The long and short of it is the devil doesn’t care in what way our offenses come, he is just looking to separate us from God. And sometimes that separation comes by not forgiving those we hear about rather than our up close and personal offenses.

These offenses are an underlying thing. Which often feels more like forgiving a villain in a movie I am watching. I don’t have personal connection with these offenders, but still I have an offense which may or may not be exasperated by people stirring the pot.

Going to Bed Mad and Not Forgiving

In this current climate it is easy to hear about something awful and then go to bed mad. If it was someone close to me, I would obviously know to forgive. But the distance created by the media’s reporting of the offense, gives me the illusion of anonymity. But does this give me a pass to not be current in my forgiveness just because these offenders are not in my life? I can tell you the evidence in my heart is no.

This lesson is one that I learned earlier and actually spoke of in the afterword of Martha’s book Altogether Forgiven. If you haven’t read her book, I highly recommend it to you. And my afterword gave some practical steps in dealing with this very thing. But as time has passed I have slowly left the practice. So I needed a reminder and in the next two days I will share them with you in  reposts. Oddly right now I need it more than ever. Actually I think we all do. I pray they really bless you!

But I say to you, do not resist an evil person [who insults you or violates your rights]; but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other toward him also [simply ignore insignificant insults or trivial losses and do not bother to retaliate—maintain your dignity, your self-respect, your poise].
Matthew 5:39 AMPC