YOU ARE Forgiven, So Forgive

In this episode we discuss forgiveness and reconciliation. God sent Jesus to reconcile the world back to His original plan He intended for creation. Through God’s act of reconciliation we are able to experience the Father and know Him personally. In this, He also showed us the importance of forgiveness. Through Jesus Christ, we have the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7). We have been forgiven of our sins, which is something we could never earn. If God forgave us, who are we not to forgive others? As followers of Christ, we have been equipped to reconcile others to God and a way in which this happens is through forgiveness. People’s actions can hurt us which can lead to unwanted pain, anger, resentment and so many other feelings. This can cause forgiveness to be even harder but this is a reminder that as Christians, we don’t do things in our own strength and we don’t see things the way the world does because we rely on our Heavenly Father’s strength. 

Scriptures Mentioned: 

Psalms 34:14 MSG

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 CSB 

Colossians 3:12-17 CSB 

Mark 11:25 NIV 

Matthew 6:14-15 NIV 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Okay. Good morning. Okay. Welcome to the Right Where You Are podcast. I am your host, Tia Dennison, and I am back. I know it's been a minute, but I'll be. Okay. Um, so much to catch up on, so much to talk about, but it's gonna come. So right now we're gonna invite God into this place, into this space, and we're gonna get into some notes because I got some good stuff. So God, thank you for allowing me to be into this space and to talk to your sons and your daughters, God. Um, I love the fact that you can use me and you allow me to talk and I don't take it for granted, God. Um use me like only you can, Lord. In Jesus' mighty name I pray, amen. Amen. Okay. Um hello. So update. Uh it's been a minute, we know that. But I'm here, I'm back, and um I'm back. So I know it previously in the past episodes we talked about my transition and now I'm officially on the other side of that, hence, new place, new space. Um, but I'm on the other side of it and it has not been easy. Update on it, it has not been easy. But um I'm walking through it and I got God with me. So everything is different when you have God with you, of course. Like long as I have his presence, I'm fine. But I'm not gonna sit here and say, Oh, I'm good, I'm great. I have the joy of the Lord. That's what keeps me going, right? So, but other than that, I'm okay. Um adjusting to family, adjusting to a new new work, um, you know, being close to friends and family is different because I'm so used to being by myself. Um, but it's it's good because I don't know if y'all remember, but I don't even know if I told y'all, but 2026 was my year of stewardship. I was like, I have good relationships and I have good people in my life, and I wanted to focus more on that, and I wanted to get better with uh reaching out and being present with them. So actually being home has been a plus. I'm actually going to visit some I've been dealing with my family since I've been home, which has been like a month and some change now. Um, but really, yeah, it's been a month and a little bit, but I've been able to see my family a lot, and now I'm going to visit friends and other loved ones, and I'm actually excited. So I'm excited. Um, but I am being more intentional about my relationships and still to know. So this has been good for me. Um it has been honestly a breath of fresh air to be in it has been no, it has its pros and its cons. It has been a breath of fresh air because I get to um be real like the people who love you, your family, your friends, they just remind you of who you are. And we put ourselves in different environments. We go off and you know, we do different things, and sometimes we don't always have the support, or some people don't have the support like others or whatever. So it was very uh it's really good to be back into a space where I have people who love and support and I feel like appreciated, like it's been nothing but oh, if you need anything, let me know. Like I'm here. My family wants you to know, like it's just it's just consistent support, and I'm very appreciative, and it just reminds me that like I am loved, um, and I need to receive that, so that's what I'm working on. But, anyways, uh talking about student relationships, the topic we're gonna get into today is talking about unforgiveness, forgiveness, unforgiveness, reconciliation. Um, so I've had a friend for a long time. Uh and we haven't talked in a couple of years. Or like I still communicate with like their family, but as far as them, like we haven't talked in a while. Um there were our reasons on my part and their part, but um I finally came to the conclusion or like we're finally in the process of working it out, and like we set up a lunch for this week to talk, and I'm actually pretty excited about it. And in taking that step, God revealed, okay, you know God gonna speak to me. So it was talking about reconciliation. So in that he gave me some word. Hold on, let me find it. It so the scripture that I reflected on was Psalms 34, 14 in the Mystic Translation, it says, Turn your back on sin, do something good, embrace peace, don't let it get away. It says in times of pressure, we want control and comfort. I say, as a daughter of God, I have to go a different route and not be led by my flesh. Um, pride, anger, selfishness, they don't just lay down and die on their own. You have to work through it. Passionately pursue peace, not just with God, but with those around me. I do not live this Christian life in my own strength. The promise is that we have a helper, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can guide us. Lord, help me always turn from evil, do good, seek peace and pursue it. And then it says reconcile for a purpose. Most solutions in life involve a process, and the idea of reconciliation is no different. It is not enough to know that reconciliation is the answer to disunity and injustice. We have to seek to understand and actively engage in the process. Reconciliation is the hard but good, messy yet beautiful, worth it kind of work. So this has been my friend for a while, and they know me. Um they knew me from elementary school. So it's just I know people grow and people change, but things happen, life goes on, but I just it was something that I wanted to work on earlier in the year, and then just the opportunity came up. So um it's hard but good, messy, yet beautiful, worth it kind of work. And as a follower of Jesus Christ, you are not only called to understand and engage in the process of reconciliation, you are thoroughly equipped to be a minister of reconciliation. And then I had to remind myself like I am thoroughly equipped to be a minister of reconciliation. Why? How? So 2 Corinthians 5, verse 16 through 21, the ministry of reconciliation. From now on, then we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective, even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. So with that verse alone, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. From now on, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. So all the way I used to see people or however they hurt me or whatever, like I cannot see them in the same light that I used to. Or if I do, I look at it as like I'm being proud for I'm holding on to something that I need to let go. Because if I'm new and I have to look at it through a new lens. So moving forward. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, and see, the new has come. Everything is from God who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not continuing their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. Since God is making his appeal through us, we plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. It says, and then I just reaffirm, like scripture affirms that every believer is a minister of reconciliation, empowered by God Himself. So the reconciliation doesn't happen through us, it happens through the strength that God gave us. I can't think through and see things. This is just notes for me. I can't think through and see things through my worldly lens. I have to re-examine through my lens, my new lens, my lens of Christ. So God worked to bring us back to himself through Jesus. Jesus came, he died for us, he rose again, he laid his life down so we can be forgiven. And because he gave he provided us with this example and he allowed reconciliation to happen for us, it's just like why wouldn't I want to? Or this is the strength, or this is the reminder that I need to work through my own problems and work through a reconciliation because I am forgiving. I need to forgive. So more. There's more. So when okay, forgiveness now, and and for me, like right now, I'm working through forgiveness with this specific friend, and then also I had a dream last night about someone else. So I'm thinking like, okay, I need to work through that too. Um, but I told you I'm also on this I'm I'm on this journey of loving me and um just understanding that I have to love God, love myself, and then therefore I can love other people. Now I have been genuinely working through that. I have been learning to love God, love myself, love other people. But I also like something that I like to do with that because it's the same with everything, it's hard for me to trust. So, what how do I work on my trust? Trust God, trust myself, trust other people. And that's just something that I've been working through. But in that, like, it starts with you, like it starts with you as a person. Like, I have to forgive myself for hurting myself, allowing certain things to happen, not living up to my potential. You have to forgive yourself for sin. Like, you you just it starts with you because that's where the transformation can take place, and then from forgiving yourself, you don't forgive yourself, then you learn to trust God, and then you learn to trust yourself again by understanding what God says, working through it and applying it, and then moving forward with that. But like forgiveness is not just about like the people around you, it's really the transformation happens when you start to forgive yourself. So that's something else that I've been working on, but I wanted to share that piece. But back back to this. Um something else, and then this morning I was in the word and it was talking about Colossians, it was from Colossians 3 12 through 17. Therefore, as God, oh, therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a grievance against one another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. We live a forgiving life, so we must forgive. Back to talking about how God has forgiven us through Jesus. So it's just like we live their life, so we must forgive. It's not up for it's not up for question because move like moving on, it says forgiveness is a key component of a sincere faith. Approaching God with an unforgiving heart hinders our communion with the Father. By calling his followers to forgive others, he reflects the kingdom principle that receiving divine forgiveness should motivate believers to show the same grace to those who have hurt them. So we receive that divine forgiveness, and that that is what motivates us to forgive. And then also you want to forgive because if you don't forgive, then God won't forgive you. And then when God isn't forgiving you of the things that you go through, then that sits in you, that fishes in you, it creates bitterness, it creates different types of um moods or whatever, and it is being reflected, and that's not you, that's not helping you, that's not transforming you, that's not allowing God to do his work. So we don't forgive for people, we forgive for ourselves and to be closer to God and to continue to have that communion with him, to continue to have that relationship with him. Forgiveness is not about you, it's about him, it's about glorifying him, it's about honoring him because he loves when we reconcile, he loves when we commune, like he loves togetherness. So, yeah. Matthew 6, 14 through 15. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. And we know that sin with a sin, sin is death. Life and death cannot coexist. Like, if you if you hold on to sin, you're not allowing God to do the work and for you to live the abundant life that He promised. God's merciful nature calls us to be merciful as well. When we harbor grudges, our relationship with the Lord suffers. True faith flourishes best in a heart free from bitterness, demonstrating that trust in God and forgiveness towards others are deeply intertwined. Unyielding resentment can effectively block the forgiveness we ourselves long for. The unwillingness to forgive us reveals a heart that has not fully understood or experienced God's abundant consent to pardon. God desires, God our father desires a familiar relationship with his children and defined by loving reciprocity rather than bitterness. Genuine faith brings transformation, aligning hearts with the forgiving nature of the Father, which can liberate the soul from destructive cycles of anger and retribution. Forgiveness is important. So um, forgive, forgive people, forgive yourself, and let God work through you in that. Um, because like I said, the forgiveness is not about the people, it's about us, and it's about God, of course, but it's about letting go of the burdens, letting go, freeing your hearts, making that hard heart that you have towards that people, making it flesh, making it soft again. Like that's what forgiveness is about. It's not about me. Um, and if you it's and if you don't want to forgive or like um, or if it's something like just pray and ask God to, you know, soften your heart towards this situation. Because for me, I look at it as pride, like, why can't I forgive? Because, you know, like, oh, they hurt me, I don't want to deal with. Okay, like let it go. Like you hurt God over and over and over again, yet he still forgives you. Like, humble yourself and know that like you are a representation of Christ now. You don't walk the same at the same and like however you show up, you you claiming to be, you know, a Christ follower, yet you're not forgiving other people. You holding on to stuff that for what? You holding on to bitterness, anger with for what? Like, what are you holding on to that stuff for? Let it go because God wants you to. That's the most important, and because he forgave you, like forgive other people. Like, don't let their pride get into the way, and don't let it block what God has for you, free yourself from that. So that's my word. That's what God and I have been working through this week. Um, and I'm just I'm just happy that I can share this with you all. Um, so before we go out, we're gonna go ahead and pray. God, thank you for allowing me to speak. Thank you for using me. Um, today we touched on forgiveness. Forgiveness is important, and I just thank you for sending Jesus and allowing him to come into our hearts and allowing him to be the example that we get to follow, Lord. Um, it wasn't by happenstance, it wasn't by chance, it was all part of your perfect plan. And I just thank you. So um, I pray that whoever is struggling with unforgiveness or struggling with anything as related to forgiving themselves or forgiving those people around them, forgiving their parents for things that they had no control over, Lord God. I just pray for their hearts right now, God. I pray that you open their eyes and soften their hearts towards the situation and that they can come to you and they can go to them through you, through the strength that you give them, Lord God. And I just ask that you continue to, you know, guide us, lead us into where we need to be for your glory, for your name, for who you are, not for our own way. Your will, your way, not ours, Lord God. And that's in Jesus' mighty name I pray, amen. Amen. Until next time.