{"id":1166,"date":"2014-04-30T13:13:06","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T17:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=1166"},"modified":"2014-04-30T13:13:06","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T17:13:06","slug":"the-cost-of-not-forgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/04\/the-cost-of-not-forgiving.html","title":{"rendered":"The Cost of Not Forgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Much has been said about the cost of following Jesus, even by Jesus Himself. But what isn\u2019t heard as much (unless you\u2019re listening to Dallas Willard) is the cost of not following Him. Jesus instructs us to forgive all offenses against us. He modeled this continually on the planet even to his last few minutes when He spoke, <em>\u201cFather, forgive them for they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/em> Forgiveness takes supernatural power that we don\u2019t have. We think our offense is \u201cspecial\u201d and less forgivable that the offenses Jesus was referring to. Uh-huh.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, it\u2019s costly to forgive, but it\u2019s just so much more costly not to. I (Jill) know firsthand, as you probably do, too. So forgive extravagantly, even naively if necessary. Proverbs says, \u201cIt is the glory of the wise to overlook an offense.\u201d Whatever it takes. With God\u2019s help\u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>Father,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Forgive me for not forgiving those who have wounded, offended, betrayed, and abused me. Set me free from the grip of bitterness, distancing, and revenge wounding. Oh God, how I cannot do this without you. But with your help I can do all things.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>You are a forgiving Father. Your Son, Jesus, made that clear with every step of his sandal on earth. And He is the perfect representation of Your heart. Make me like You. Make me love you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Amen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much has been said about the cost of following Jesus, even by Jesus Himself. But what isn\u2019t heard as much (unless you\u2019re listening to Dallas Willard) is the cost of not following Him. Jesus instructs us to forgive all offenses against us. He modeled this continually on the planet even to his last few minutes&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[293,315,313,86,314],"class_list":["post-1166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abuse","tag-betrayal","tag-bitterness","tag-forgiveness","tag-offense"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Cost of Not Forgiving<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/04\/the-cost-of-not-forgiving.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cost of Not Forgiving\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Much has been said about the cost of following Jesus, even by Jesus Himself. But what isn\u2019t heard as much (unless you\u2019re listening to Dallas Willard) is the cost of not following Him. Jesus instructs us to forgive all offenses against us. 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