While visiting an elderly couple who were with our church for a time, the husband showed me a sword that had belonged to an officer in the Japanese army. His face was dark as he spoke bitterly of things he had experienced during World War II.
I asked him if he knew how valuable the sword was to the relatives of the dead officer. He did. He was well aware that the sword was priceless in the eyes of the officer’s family.
“That’s why I will never allow them to have it”, he said. It was his way of taking revenge. I warned him that if he kept the sword his hatred would consume him. But nothing I said could persuade him to rid himself of it. The couple moved away, and I heard nothing more from them.
Hatred is a two-edged sword; a weapon forged in bitterness with a blade sharper than any Samurai sword. Forgiveness does not always come easily, and especially so in the case of those who’ve suffered terribly; however, it has the power to break the carefully forged steel of an embittered heart.
Hatred results in self-harm, but forgiveness heals bitter memories and causes hatred to lose its hold on the heart. In Mark 11:26, Jesus says, “If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your sins.”
It is wonderful that God has forgiven our sins, but we must also forgive those who have sinned against us. That’s why the Lord taught us to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who’ve trespassed against us.” (Matthew 6:12)
Who among us has not trespassed — crossed a boundary they shouldn’t have? Crossed from a good attitude into a bad attitude, or from morality into immorality. Or being dissatisfied with what we have intruded into what was someone else’s rightful possession.
If you’ve put things right with God, then don’t forget to also put things right with others. The repentant taxman Zacchaeus vowed that he would restore what he had thieved. A letter or a phone call will do it. A simple way of relieving the other person of bitterness they may hold — and in the act doing that gaining relief yourself by clearing your conscience. A big bonus will be a sound sleep.