Forgiveness

I just read the following words and was greatly struck by them. It is both convicting and enlightening. Something to ponder, pray about, and put into practice--

"It is impossible to risk your life to make others glad in God if you are an unforgiving person. If you are wired to see other people's faults and failures and offenses, and treat them roughly, you will not take risks for their joy. This wiring--and it is universal in all human beings--must be dismantled. We will not gladly risk to make people glad in God if we hate them, or hold grudges against them, or are repelled by their faults and foibles. We must become forgiving people.

Don't start raising objections about the hard cases. I am talking about a spirit, not a list of criteria for when we do this or that. Nor am I talking about wimpy grace that can't rebuke or discipline or fight. The question is, do we lean toward mercy? Do we default to grace? Do we have a forgiving spirit? Without it we will walk away from need and waste our lives . . .

Forgiveness is essentially God's way of removing the great obstacle to our fellowship with Him. By canceling our sin and paying for it with the death of His own Son, God opens the way for us to see Him and know Him and enjoy Him forever. Seeing and savoring Him is the goal of forgiveness. Soul-satisfying fellowship with our Father is the aim of the cross. If we love being forgiven for other reasons alone, we are not forgiven, and we will waste our lives . . .

. . . the motive for being a forgiving person is the joy of being freely and joyfully at home with God . . . Joy in God overflows in glad-hearted mercy to people, because joy in the merciful God cannot spurn being merciful. You cannot despise becoming what you enjoy about God."

--Taken from the chapter entitled "The Goal of Life--Gladly Making Others Glad in God" in the book Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper