Heart Scarring

Have been ruminating ‘muchly’ on something and recently was reminded again of it while reading something with the wife. Unforgiveness is a deadly cancer that eats away at the heart. The more there is the more rampant the cancerous effect. I may be oversimplifying here but one effect of cancer is that it literally decays tissue making it cold and hard where before it was warm and soft. So it is with unforgiveness, bearing a grudge, harbouring a hurt however you want to define it; it makes cold the heart, hardening it and removing its capacity to love and feel. Bitterness rises up and can literally take possession of your soul. The burden can be incapacitating.
Read these words

How heavy is a glass of water? That depends on how long you have to carry it. A minute is no problem and after an hour your arm might ache. But after 24 hours you’ll probably be in bad shape… It is the same with a grudge; it can get so heavy it stops you from living.

Every person, if they have been around any length of time, would have to admit to the reality of this truth. Relationships are torn apart by the effect of this cancer, any relationship. There is no ground that unforgiveness fears to tread. Marriages, brothers and sisters, parents and children, work mates, fellow members of the church, you name a relationship unforgiveness has had its destructive way there.

The God of grace revealed in the bible is so aware of this and unequivocally calls us to remove the dreaded effects of unforgiveness from every area of life. Christ states that God can’t forgive us if we are unwilling to forgive others. That is how fundamental forgiveness is to living well as a Christian. Fortunately, God empowers us as we look to the indescribable magnitude of God’s forgiving heart towards us in the death of Christ to reciprocate to others such forgiveness. He also gives us His Spirit to fill our heart with the love, grace, and strength to offer forgiveness where it seems impossible.
Don’t die inside, don’t lose the capacity to live life, don’t be ruled by a destructive master! Forgive!