THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS

Power according to the dictionary means the ability, strength and capacity to do something. To forgive is to pardon, to waive any negative feeling or to willingly drop a desire for revenge. Forgiveness is the action of forgiving. Forgiving your offenders has effect on you and them.

The word forgiveness sounds ordinary but it carries authority and power. It is easier mentioned than acted. A story was told about a wealthy man who was so full of himself. This man out of envy and jealousy hired assassins for a fellow man in the neighbourhood, leaving the family in perpetual poverty. The wife of the murdered man, not knowing who the murderers were placed a curse on them and vowed never to forgive them. Owing to unbearable hardship the widow decided to return to her native village. At the village, she fell ill and was admitted to the hospital. During the period of her stay in the hospital, another woman (perhaps an angelic being) whom she never met before came to her and reminded her of the weight of grievances she carried which were producing ill-health in her. Yet this grieved widow explained her firm decision not to forgive the group of people that killed her husband. The angelic figure told her that her healing is tied to her forgiveness. Immediately the woman vanished from her sight, a hospital cleaner came into the room to do some chores. The widow was shocked to recognize the cleaner as the wealthy man in the husband’s town. The man, filled to overflowing with unquenchable sense of guilt as the only surviving person in his destructive group confessed his wicked acts and asked the woman for forgiveness. The woman could not believe her ears but when she remembered the word of God sent by the angelic being, she forgave him. Gradually she received her healing.

Unforgiveness is a barrier to so many achievements in people’s lives. Not only that it can invite evil forces of wrath, anger, malice and murder in a person’s life but also it can truncate useful friendship and thriving marriages.

Forgiveness can usher a person into divine protection, healing, divine lift, and success, peace of mind, long life and eternal life. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). Forgiving your offenders invites God’s mercies into your life. It lightens the heart and frees a person from psychosomatic ailments. Learning to forgive others is learning to retain quality friends. Forgiveness is a virtue that prepares a person for fruitful married life. Offences that crop up in every human relationship including marriage are balanced out by the virtue of forgiveness. Human countenance retains its glow,cheer and shine when the practice of forgiveness is worn like a garment.