Click the icon for the three-page printable version of this small group lesson as
The Jesus MeetUp
"Forgiveness: How It Works"
Week #16
The Jesus MeetUp Forgiveness: How it Works! Week #16
So someone harms you. You have been HURT! What are your emotions: Shocked...Angry...Sad...and then you go back and forth between angry/sad, angry/sad, angry/sad and on and on and on? Maybe you feel that you are now STUCK! Now you are possibly in a depressed state as the chemicals in your brain have now become affected into a real ‘clinical depression’. What to do? Who can help?
Forgiveness defined:
-
n. The act or disposition of forgiving; pardon; remission of an obligation, debt, or penalty
Our Father Forgives Easily.
2:4.2 God is inherently kind, naturally compassionate, and everlastingly merciful. And never is it necessary that any influence be brought to bear upon the Father to call forth his loving-kindness. The person's need is wholly sufficient to insure the full flow of the Father's tender mercies and his saving grace. Since God knows all about his children, it is easy for him to forgive. The better man understands his neighbor, the easier it will be to forgive him, even to love him.
174:1.5 “Your inability or unwillingness to forgive your fellows is the measure of your immaturity, your failure to attain adult sympathy, understanding, and love. You hold grudges and nurse vengeance in direct proportion to your ignorance of the inner nature and true longings of your children and your fellow beings. Love is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life. It is founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom.” ~ Jesus
They Are Not Our Child To Discipline – They Are His.
143:1.4 "I have come into this world to do the will of my Father and to reveal his loving character to all mankind. That, my friends, is my mission. And this one thing I will do, regardless of the misunderstanding of my teachings by Jews or gentiles of this day or of another generation. But you should not overlook the fact that even divine love has its severe disciplines. A father's love for his child oftentimes impels the father to restrain the unwise acts of his thoughtless offspring. The child does not always comprehend the wise and loving motives of the father's restraining discipline. But I declare to you that my Father in Paradise does rule a universe of universes by the compelling power of his love.” ~ Jesus
It will be far, far better if you trust your heart and mind to your indwelling Paradise Father who loves YOU and loves your abuser. Let them go to His healing hand.
Have you ever been so hurt and angry that you wanted to hurt someone back?
Have you ever wanted to hurt them as badly as they hurt you? Did they take something from you that seemingly can never be returned (whole) again? Is this crushing your spirit within you? Your Father knows all of this! Go to Him. Release and yield to Him. Trust your heart’s repair to your loving indwelling Paradise Father. Reject bitterness. Deeply embrace the universal FACT that your Father loves your abuser also, and they are His child – not yours. He is fully able to correct them and restore you. But you must make the first move/s within your own free will choices of your mind. May we all remember: They took Jesus’ life from Him and even in that moment He forgave them. Let us commit today to disciplining our own mind and trusting God to discipline ‘them’.
Forgive Us As We Forgive Them.
146:2.4 By opening the human end of the channel of the God-man communication (true worship), humans make immediately available the ever-flowing stream of divine ministry to the people of the worlds. When man or woman hears God’s spirit speak within the human heart, inherent in such an experience is the fact that God simultaneously hears that person’s prayer. Even the forgiveness of sin operates in this same unerring fashion. The Father in heaven has forgiven you even before you have thought to ask him, but such forgiveness is not available in your personal religious experience until such a time as you forgive your fellows. God’s forgiveness in FACT is not conditioned upon your forgiving your fellows, but in EXPERIENCE it is exactly so conditioned. And this fact of the synchrony of divine and human forgiveness was thus recognized and linked together in the prayer which Jesus taught the apostles.
"Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come; your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our bread for tomorrow;
Refresh our souls with the water of life.
And forgive us every one our debts
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
Save us in temptation, deliver us from evil,
And increasingly make us perfect like yourself." ~ Jesus 144:3.3-12
Shall we pursue opening the human end of the ever-flowing channel of the God-man communication (true worship) and receiving forgiveness? Hallelujah! Yes!
Presumption Precaution
147:5.9 But Jesus earnestly warned against the foolishness of the child of God who presumes upon the Father's love. He declared that the heavenly Father is not a lax, loose, or foolishly indulgent parent who is ever ready to condone sin and forgive recklessness. He cautioned his hearers not mistakenly to apply his illustrations of father and son or daughter so as to make it appear that God is like some overindulgent and unwise parents who conspire with the foolish of earth to encompass the moral undoing of their thoughtless children, and who are thereby certainly and directly contributing to the delinquency and early demoralization of their own offspring. "My Father does not indulgently condone those acts and practices of his children which are self-destructive and suicidal to all moral growth and spiritual progress. Such sinful practices are an abomination in the sight of God." ~ Jesus
The Work of Forgiveness
159:1.3 "The Father in heaven loves his children, and therefore should you learn to love one another; the Father in heaven forgives you your sins; therefore should you learn to forgive one another. If your brother sins against you, go to him and with tact and patience show him his fault. And do all this between you and him alone.” ~ Jesus
What matters is that you have TRIED to do this. If they refuse then you are free.
Our Father understands us. He forgives us. Our Father will help us come to understand and forgive each other – even to love one another. Love is doing good to others. Let us give true love that does not compromise nor condone hate; but destroys it.
Forgiveness and Feeling Found
The Jews had heard of a God who would forgive repentant sinners and try to forget their misdeeds, but not until Jesus came did men hear about a God who went in search of lost sheep, who took the initiative in looking for sinners, and who rejoiced when he found them willing to return to the Father's house. Jesus extended this positive note even to his prayers. And he converted the negative golden rule into a positive admonition of human fairness.
169:1.4 “And you should also remember the story of the woman who, having had ten pieces of silver made into a necklace of adornment, lost one piece, and how she lit the lamp and diligently swept the house and kept up the search until she found the lost piece of silver. And as soon as she found the coin that was lost, she called together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece that was lost.’ So again I say, there is always joy in the presence of the angels of heaven over one sinner who repents and returns to the Father’s fold. And I tell you this story to impress upon you that the Father and his Son go forth to SEARCH for those who are lost, and in this SEARCH we employ all influences capable of rendering assistance in our diligent efforts to find those who are lost, those who stand in need of salvation. And so, while the Son of Man goes out in the wilderness to SEEK for the sheep gone astray, he also SEARCHES for the coin which is lost in the house. The sheep wanders away, unintentionally; the coin is covered by the dust of time and obscured by the accumulation of the things of men.” ~ Jesus
Where can we go that our Father is not?
What can be done in supposed secret that is not known in full? We wander by our lower thinking – our original animal origins – our small souls attempting to find satisfaction when the ONE who can truly satisfy us dwells within with only loving intentions towards us. May we relish feeling found by our Sovereign-Searcher, the Good Shepard.
To forgive and forget? No!
Jesus taught us the spiritual law of forgiveness and how this enlarges our own capacity to receive forgiveness from our Father. However, are we expected to forget? We have all heard the phrase “forgive and forget”. Is this true?
Forgiveness is a heavy and important topic! In Jesus’ last words to the Pharisees who planned to murder him shortly, he said: “And now I take leave of you. You have heard my message and have made your decision. Those who have believed my gospel are even now safe within the kingdom of God. To you who have chosen to reject the gift of God, I say that you will no more see me teaching in the temple. My work for you is done. Behold, I now go forth with my children, and your house is left to you desolate!” ~ Jesus 175:1.24
Forgiving is not forgetting.
We are taught by Jesus to love and forgive everyone. But forgiving is not forgetting. We will and should remember our experiences as this becomes prudence. Jesus did not spend much time with the Pharisees but He did speak to them in His Final Discourse regarding their positions of power over the hurting children of God and the evil with which they treated them. We can learn from this foresight that Jesus employed.
Remembering with forgiveness.
Forgiving is not failing to remember. Forgiving is intelligently remembering by experience to keep a distance while having a gracious attitude toward the offender/s and in so doing we have created safety, grown in wisdom and enlarged our capacity for spiritual growth and higher values.
We do not have to continue in relationship with those who are evil and sinful towards us. We will discuss this next week. However, we are expected by God to always forgive remembering with a merciful heart of love.
He does not condemn!
162:3.5 Jesus said: "Woman, where are your accusers? Did no man remain to stone you?" And the woman, lifting up her eyes, answered, "No man, Lord." And then said Jesus: "I know about you; neither do I condemn you. Go your way in peace." And this woman, Hildana, forsook her wicked husband and joined herself to the disciples of the kingdom.
We have Powers of our human personality that are higher and can TRANSCEND (go beyond the material) lowly animal origin emotions. These are of the spirit and the mind who IS Mother Spirit. Without Her ministry of mind none of these higher Powers could function within US.
178:1.13 The consciousness of sonship with God should quicken the entire life service of every man, woman, and child who has become the possessor of such a mighty stimulus to all the inherent Powers of a human personality.
136:6.10 This great decision of Jesus portrays dramatically the truth that selfish satisfaction and sensuous gratification, alone and of themselves, are not able to confer happiness upon evolving human beings. There are higher values in mortal existence — intellectual mastery and spiritual achievement — which far transcend the necessary gratification of man's purely physical appetites and urges. Man's natural endowment of talent and ability should be chiefly devoted to the development and ennoblement of his higher Powers of mind and spirit.
Vengeance and a lack of forgiveness is ‘low’. Forgiveness as we see in Jesus on the cross is possible for us. When we choose to forgive these Powers are released in us.
Some questions to discuss:
Why do you think we go back and forth between angry and sad when someone hurts us?
Why is an inability to forgive a lack of maturity?
What are your thoughts regarding those who have harmed us ‘His child and not ours’?
Why is real forgiveness different from ‘forgive and forget’?
Where do these transcendent Powers come from?
Now, at the close of our meeting is a good time to say as a loving group The Lord’s Prayer all together. Please turn these sheets back in to save on paper/ink. Thank you for being here.
Write down any questions you may have and give them to your leader.
To remembering with loving forgiveness.
Next is Week #17 Forgiveness vs. Relationship
