{"id":2543,"date":"2021-02-28T17:03:23","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T17:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/?p=2543"},"modified":"2021-02-28T17:03:23","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T17:03:23","slug":"the-non-word-that-is-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/?p=2543","title":{"rendered":"The “non-word” that is so important!"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you have ever tried to look up the word “unforgiveness” in a dictionary, you probably discovered that it cannot be found and is not even considered an English word! Apparently this well-used “non-word” emanated from religious teachings. In fact “forgiveness” or “forgive” occur over 100 times in the Bible, and Jesus considered forgiveness as being an indisputable part of the Christian faith: Matthew 6:14-15 says “Yes, if you forgive others for the things they do wrong, then your Father in heaven will also forgive you for the things you do wrong.<\/em> But if you don\u2019t forgive the wrongs of others, then your Father in heaven will not forgive the wrong things you do.<\/em>” (ICB)<\/p>\n

Unforgiveness is NOT an option!! Perhaps we can understand this better if we read this verse in the Amplified Bible: “For if you forgive others their trespasses<\/em> [their reckless and willful sins], <\/em>your heavenly Father will also forgive you.<\/em> But if you do not forgive others<\/em> [nurturing your hurt and anger with the result that it interferes with your relationship with God], <\/em>then your Father will not forgive your trespasses.<\/em>“<\/em><\/p>\n

But that being said, forgiveness is certainly not easy! We have all been hurt or “stabbed in the back” – even by friends or fellow churchgoers! We have all heard of heinous acts done to people that would be almost impossible to forgive. What does God expect us to do?<\/p>\n

Thankfully He sent us Jesus who actually also suffered such things and so truly understands. His prayer: “Father, forgive them, for they don\u2019t know what they are doing…”<\/em> (Luke 23:34) has been a great help to me at such times. As I pray for my offenders and realize that they cannot truly “know” God (because if they did, they would not act in such a way!) I feel some compassion for them. They can’t have experienced God’s amazing love; and that compassion is the first step towards forgiving them – and healing ME!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you have ever tried to look up the word “unforgiveness” in a dictionary, you probably discovered that it cannot be found and is not even considered an English word! Apparently this well-used “non-word” emanated from religious teachings…. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shirleysblog","no-comments"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7CEri-F1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2544,"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions\/2544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imofinc.org\/hp_wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}