As Christians we all are taught to forgive. We come to Christ because we recognize our need to be forgiven for our sins, yet I know so many Christians who are bitter about things that have happened in their lives. If I am going to be transparent, I fell in the same category for many years, until I realized the lie I was buying into. And even when I recognized the lie, I struggled to understand the connection between bitterness and forgiveness. Now before you go thinking, wait a minute Vonnie, say it ain’t so……. It is so.
This morning during my run a song on my playlist called, “Bullets” by NeedtoBreathe started to play. It goes like this, “You can’t put the bullets back into a gun, Can’t undo what we have done, Can’t break this heart of stone” I got to thinking, well yeah, I can not undo my mess sometimes. I really hurt people, I make mistakes all the time. The song speaks of a warning really to make sure we understand we are incapable of being perfect. But we all know that right? YET there is much more to it, there is a significance to forgiveness that bitterness robs us of.
The lyrics talk about this heart of stone and bullets not going back into the gun. It made me think of bitterness, it is a hardened heart incapable of being softened or changed. Once a bullet is fired from a gun it is incapable of being loaded back into the gun and used for a purpose. Much like us, if bitterness is allowed to rule our responses we are hardened like a heart of stone. When we choose to operate in bitterness, we act as bullets, we think we are incapable of going back to our God given purpose because we operate in a mindset of being justified or entitled to be angry.
The lie, “we are entitled/justified,” only keeps us from knowing forgiveness. Walk with me here, with bitterness you are incapable to practice forgiveness. Which leads to incorrect thinking of God. If I do not practice forgiveness, not only do I not know how to receive it, but I am incapable of giving it. I won’t know what it looks like and how it should be. Because I am a runner, I understand that without practice I am not going to be good at or get better at running. It is vital that I practice in order to know how to do something well.
When Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:15, we are called to forgive or we will not be forgiven. Jesus also carries this same command to prayer, in Mark 11:25. This seems so unlikely to read that God has a condition for our forgiveness? Is it possible God has conditions, NO!!! That would mean we have no freedom to choose and that is not who God is. God wants us to be free and practice freedom and this is a perfect example of a perfect God laying out a perfect plan to help our lives go better. God in His infinite wisdom told us to practice forgiveness, it makes us resilient. We can then know certain situations may come up that remind us of trauma but we DO NOT have to live in that trauma. We can choose to walk in freedom which is forgiveness.
What if our sin, the bullets we shoot out at others are to be a reminder of our need for forgiveness and bitterness is a result of not seeking to forgive or be forgiven?
therealvonnielinn 