When we forgive someone, we secure our own forgiveness. When we choose not to forgive, our own forgiveness is forfeit. In that moment, there is a huge impediment to fellowship with God. Namely, God does not fellowship with sin. Love for sinners? Yes! Union with them? No. So when we do forgive, the joy and peace we feel comes from the removal of hindrances to fellowship. Forgiven and clean, how could we not experience the joy of the Lord in full!
Joy Without Obstacles
In my post “Joy Is Not Foolish,” I wrote this: “Joy is not just an emotion that can be ginned up as circumstances warrant. It is a heavenly state of being.” What does that have to do with forgiveness? Everything.
Psalm 30:5 says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” The dawn of a new day brings joy and hope. Every time I forgive, it’s dawn in my heart. And in that new, fresh, clean dawning, I am in the presence of the Lord, without obstacle. That is the heavenly state of being.
Joy is how I know that my work of forgiveness is bearing fruit. A weight lifts off my shoulders and my heart ceases to be chained to the one who hurt me. Instead I breathe and feel free and know joy. Really know it! I think that forgiveness and repentance must be closely related, because forgiveness takes me to Joel 2:12 (AMPC).
Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn and keep on coming to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning [until every hindrance is removed and the broken fellowship is restored].
The joy that I experience in forgiveness is the bliss of restored fellowship. I am one with the Lord and it’s like being made whole again after being torn apart. It is in every way a heavenly state of being, a oneness that can’t be found anywhere else. It is Christ’s own JOY.
May you each know His joy without hindrance as you celebrate His sovereign reign on Thanksgiving Day!
Matthew 6:14,15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Thank you, Wanda! That’s exactly the verse I was paraphrasing and I probably should have just included it for clarity’s sake. So hoping that your Thanksgiving is filled with the joy of the Lord!
Bless you, sweet Jen. Have a wonderful thanksgiving day. Love you and all the dear Shulamites.
“When we choose not to forgive, our own forgiveness is forfeit.”
Careful, Jennifer. The Lord’s Forgiveness of us is not contingent upon our performance of any righteousness whatsoever, but the Blood of Cheist alone. Unforgiveness cripples us emotionally, but it does not affect our Salvation (forgiveness). We must not confuse emotions with Truth.
The Blood of Christ cannot be overestimated, so thank you, Rochelle, for your conviction and appreciation of salvation by faith alone, through grace, imputed to us through Christ’s Blood.
I believe the context of this post is more geared towards restoration (after salvation).
Grace to you, Rochelle and a joyous Thanksgiving — content in His presence!
Perfectly put, Pauline. Thank you, I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Our Blessed Savior was alive in human form when He spoke those words. He was a Jew among Jews. They were in fact still under the Mosaic Covenant at that time, with all of the demands of righteousness from man that man will never be capable of, as He so clearly explained and illustrated in that Holy Teaching. And then He gave His life for us. And nothing has ever been the same.