097 – What happens when you forgive someone?

For Mark Sowersby, forgiveness brings freedom.

Mark is a Pentecostal preacher and shares a powerful testimony of forgiveness in this week's episode. As a child, he was abused sexually. But freedom did not come when the abuse stopped after seven years. 

It took decades for Mark to find true freedom and it only came as he was able to forgive his abusers.

At one point Mark thought he could just forgive his abusers and it would all be over. But he has realized that forgiveness is a journey. All too often, Christians want to forgive someone because they know they're supposed to, and they say the words, but don't really deal with the deep levels of forgiveness required.

We have to be willing to take this journey and trust in God's help along the way. We can't forgive someone all by ourselves. It's only with God's love and forgiveness that we can forgive others.

Two things propelled Mark on this journey of forgiveness: 

1.  He was sick and tired of being sick and tired. He had hit rock bottom. 
2.  His mother passed on, which stirred a lot of emotions and feelings and caused a lot of self-reflection and praying. It caused him to turn to Christ.

Mark says there are a lot of people who are hurting because of what has been done to them and they haven't been able to forgive. They don't want to go through the process because they think it's too hard or they don't want to forgive.

Here are some of the points Mark makes about forgiveness

• Don't make excuses for going on the journey of forgiveness
• It’s important to find individuals and communities of people who you feel safe with that you can talk to about your feelings 
• Forgiveness needs to start in your prayer closet. You have to be honest with God. Ask God where to start, who to talk to
• To get out of the victim mentality we need to be sober about what happened to us. You can’t pretend those things didn’t happen. For him, God’s Word, God’s love, God’s grace, God’s voice, became louder than the voices from the past. 
• Don't use your victimhood as a bubble to live in to protect you from having to deal

Text me your questions or comments.

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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life.

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