Pardon without resentment

Forgive ~ “to grant pardon without harboring resentment,” to untie

Verb ~ “to stop being angry”

I live blest by receiving forgiveness:

Ephesians 1:7 ESV ~ “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…”

The sign of forgiveness under the old covenant ~ the mark of blood. Since Jesus blood cleanses and purifies, I am marked with His blood ~ my sign of forgiveness. This means I live “blest” by receiving forgiveness.

I live at rest by extending forgiveness.

Matthew 18:21-34 ~ Someone came to Jesus and asked, “What is our forgiveness ratio? How often should we forgive, seven times? I figure that this man must have been a mathematician. He probably thought seven times, since seven is the number for completion. Jesus answered the man with seventy times seven – in other words, we loose count in the number of times that we are to forgive. Jesus proceeded to tell a story of a wealthy man who decided to update his records and found that someone borrowed millions of dollars from him. In order to pay this debt, the wealthy man would sell the indebted man’s family. The debtor begged for the wealthy man’s compassion and mercy. The wealthy man forgave, he granted pardon without harboring resentment. The debtor left and went to someone who owed him a few thousand dollars, threatening his life and demanding payment. The one who owed him money also begged for mercy and compassion without success. The imprisoned debtor lost hope. The wealthy man heard of this incident and spoke to the man that he had forgiven. “Shouldn’t you forgive like I forgave you? I pardoned you without any expectations of seeing money. I pardoned your debt and did not hold it against you.”

Jesus said, “so also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Pardon without resentment or tormentors will come (emphasis mine).

I live blest by receiving forgiveness. I live at rest by extending forgiveness.

We “untie” others and ourselves as we release (pardon without harboring resentment) others and ourselves from an account we owe ~ offense.

I experienced this unrest (tormentors) around the age of twenty-three. Next time, we will see how I rid myself of the unrest.