{"id":3365,"date":"2016-12-16T09:22:47","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T14:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=3365"},"modified":"2016-12-16T09:22:47","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T14:22:47","slug":"forgiveness-key-merry-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/12\/forgiveness-key-merry-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Forgiveness: The Key to a Merry Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22,23)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>Three things will last forever\u2014faith, hope, and love\u2014and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Christmas is not always Currier-and-Ives-like memories. Quite the contrary, the Holidays and the people with which we must associate can trigger memories that are\u00a0troubling if not traumatic. Can we maintain a genuine \u201cmerry\u201d Christmas?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a solution: follow\u00a0Jesus\u2019 precepts.<\/p>\n<p>Love conquers trauma and the fear associated with it. The enemy of our souls has sought to trouble us with memories of our past, of others\u2019 sins against us, and our own sin. But when we yield to the forgiveness extended to us through Jesus our Savior we can rise above the tendencies to fear.<\/p>\n<p>Are there people in your life with whom\u00a0you must rub shoulders during the holidays whereby\u00a0even the mention of their names is a trigger for pain and anger? Re-program this trigger with a simple solution that changes everything: pray for them. It doesn\u2019t mean you are happy with them. It doesn\u2019t mean that they are exonerated from the pain they have caused. It doesn\u2019t mean there are not consequences. It only means that those consequences have been handed over to Jesus. And you get to go free. This Christmas can be a merry one for you, my friend.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Father,<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Even when I hear the mention of the name of my enemy, I am troubled with sadness, grief, and acute anger. But I have already forgiven them as you have commanded me, and you never ask me to do anything that is above my pay grade. As I have issued forgiveness, I have placed them in your hands. Now every time their name comes to mind, every time somebody mentions that name to me, I shall breathe this prayer:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>\u201cFather, forgive them, for they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Father, I bless them in Your Name. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Father, I receive your healing and recompense for the wrong done towards me. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Father, I set myself free from the trap of the enemy. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Father, Thank you that I walk about in freedom now.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Grant me a truly Merry Christmas.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>In Jesus\u2019 Name Amen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22,23) Three things will last forever\u2014faith, hope, and love\u2014and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) Christmas is not always Currier-and-Ives-like memories. Quite&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,24,7,4,25,1],"tags":[1342,86,1962,1961,658,1963,1960],"class_list":["post-3365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-current-events","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-uncategorized","tag-blessing-our-enemies","tag-forgiveness","tag-freedom-from-anger","tag-freedom-from-regret","tag-freedom-from-trauma","tag-keys-to-a-merry-christmas","tag-loving-our-enemies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Forgiveness: The Key to a Merry Christmas<\/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\/2016\/12\/forgiveness-key-merry-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forgiveness: The Key to a Merry Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22,23) Three things will last forever\u2014faith, hope, and love\u2014and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) Christmas is not always Currier-and-Ives-like memories. Quite&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/12\/forgiveness-key-merry-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-16T14:22:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Forgiveness: The Key to a Merry Christmas","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/12\/forgiveness-key-merry-christmas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Forgiveness: The Key to a Merry Christmas","og_description":"But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22,23) Three things will last forever\u2014faith, hope, and love\u2014and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) Christmas is not always Currier-and-Ives-like memories. 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