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Forgive First

September 8, 2021
“Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!” Matthew 18:21–22 (NLT)

Have you ever thought about the word“forgive”?

It’s made up of two words:“fore” and “give.” The word “fore” means “placed in front” or “before.” You can have foresight, which means you anticipate something before it happens, and when you’re forewarned, you’re given a warning ahead of time.

With this in mind, the word forgive could be defined as this: “giving before.” Isn’t that interesting? We need to give forgiveness before it’s earned.

“Fore” is also a word that golfers call out to warn you when the ball is coming your way. In that case, it means there is something that needs your immediate attention. When you need to forgive someone, it also needs your immediate attention. You do it first and do it quickly.

Forgiveness needs to be at the forefront of your mind even when the person who has wronged you isn’t sorry.This is because forgiveness isn’t earned. As the name implies, it’s given.

Forgive when you don’t see any change in the person. Forgive when they don’t do anything to make you feel better about the situation. Forgive when they know they’ve hurt you and forgive when they don’t have a clue that they’ve done anything wrong. Even forgive when you’ve forgiven many times before.

When you forgive, it does you more good than it does the person you forgave. Make the decision to start the process today. Ask God to help you forgive so you can laugh, love life and be free.

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