Forgiveness is a circular process. i.e. it has to start somewhere but once it does it goes round and round benefiting the multitude. Do we know that we are accepted in Jesus? He is our Husband, our King who rides on a donkey's foal to woo the daughter of Jerusalem, His people. Without truly absorbing this, we are merely keeping our hatred and passions at bay.
Know this: that you are accepted in the Beloved. Accepting this is like walking out of the dark, dank hallways of our haunted mansions with only a candle guiding us, and into the bright warmth of the noonday sun. The Sun! It completely swallows up the candle--our pitiful, hard, hard work--of grinding against our basic human nature, which seeks to ultimately kill our enemies, or at least do them just harm. The candle, our human effort, keeps the shadows from swallowing us up entirely, but it is vain effort. Eventually the candle must burn low and completely out. But if we pass through the threshold, if we dare, we will see, feel, and acknowledge a seemingly unnatural intervention to our maladjusted eyes. Who would have thought that God's love could be so good, so thorough, so complete and yet ever filling us up to overflowing? It is as Jesus says, "Woman, if you knew to whom you speak, he would give you the everlasting water welling up to eternal life." That is the promise of the Lord Jesus, and He does not lie.
All the promises of God are "yes" as Paul the Apostle says. To that we say gratefully, Amen, yea Lord Jesus, and Amen.
Humanly speaking, it is impossible to completely forgive our enemies, just as it is impossible to credit a man for having a big heart. It is the Holy Spirit who makes our hearts commodious. If we rely on ourselves, we will forgive sometimes out of our generous feelings, then other times, toward the same person, lash out in anger and projected self-hatred. And then forgive them again when we cycle back. It is hopeless and futile. We can only delude ourselves at best into thinking that the world is a good place and that psychopaths are a different species altogether. Really, the world and psychopaths are cut out of the same cloth. The Devil is in them both. And while we remain unsaved or in sin, the Devil is in us. What we need is a clean break. "You can't sew a new patch onto old clothing, or the unshrunk new patch will shrink and tear and the tear will be worse than the original hole. Likewise, no one puts new wine into old wineskins or the skin will burst and all the wine will be spoiled. Put new wine into new wineskins and you will have wine to drink." (my paraphrase) You can't use cognitive behavioural theory on people who are unredeemed and expect them to be good people. You can't fill an unredeemed, unrepentent person with the Holy Spirit. That is why the Lord Jesus must baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire so that we are committed and transformed, with the dross and impurities are burnt away. So look out! When people tell you that there are shortcuts, there are none. There is only the long, narrow, hard and straight path which many will seek, but few will find. Will you find it, fellow pilgrim?
