The Healing Power of Forgiveness

by Tim LaVere
(West Branch, Michigan)

There's a great saying that goes something like this: "Unforgiveness is like drinking deadly poison and expecting someone else to die." How true that is.

The anger and bitterness that well up inside of us from holding on to unforgiveness can be stifling. And it's often the deep-rooted pains of memories from years ago that hang on, weighing us down and keeping us from reaching our full potential.

Just a few days before my father suffered a fatal heart attack, I had the privilege of leading him back to Christ. We prayed together on the phone, and for the first time, I told him that he was forgiven for any hurt he had caused me and my family by his alcoholism. I forgave him for years of emotional hurts and neglect.

You see, I had just experienced the healing power of forgiveness myself. A powerful sermon just a few months before had driven me to the altar, where I laid down all the bitterness and anger I had been carrying with me since childhood.

What good was the unforgiveness doing? It certainly wasn't hurting the people who caused me pain in the past. When God set me free from anger, I saw the unforgiveness as a sin, a cancer in my life that had kept me from enjoying all that God wanted for me.

God has an assignment for each of us, a perfect plan to prosper and not harm us. But he can't act in our lives when we're holding on to anger.

What freedom I felt the day I told my dad that he was forgiven! We cried together, we laughed together, and for the first time in our often-broken relationship, we had peace. Three days later, he was gone to be with the Lord. Instead of anger, I had the "peace that passes all understanding" in my heart.

Just a couple weeks after Dad's death, I was cleaning out his closet, and thumbing through one of his old Bibles. On the inside cover was a notation in Dad's distinctive handwriting - "Psalms 32:1." I looked it up and read the words, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered."

The healing power of forgiveness had saved a father and son. He wants to do the same for all of his children. It's time to let it go, and let God. You are the only person who can prevent God from doing all that he wants in you. He is able to heal the broken heart, to give you the ability to forgive the seemingly unforgivable, if you'll only trust Him.