In King James Version of the bible, “Forgive” is found 56 times; forgiven is found 42 times; forgiveness is found 7 times; forgiving is found 4 times.
Forgive is a two-word which are “for” and
“give”. “For” means on account of; because of; in place of; in favour of; concerning;
and answering to. “Give” is used 880 times. Forgive is used in 8 ways in the Scripture:
a.
To give (Gen. 1:15, 17;
Pr. 1:4)
b.
Asking in prayer (I
Ki.8:36, 39; Ps. 5:1; 55:1; 60:11; 141:1)
c.
To render thanks for (I
Chron. 16:8, 28, 34, 41; Ps.96:8; 106:1)
d.
To permit (Ps. 132:4; Pr.6:4)
e.
To pacify (Rom. 12:19)
f.
To yield to or obey
(Eph.4:27)
g.
Take heed to (1
Tim.1:4)
h.
To attend to (1
Tim.4:13-15)
Mt.
6:12 says “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Pr.
19:17 says “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that
which he hath given will he pay him again”
The first question that may
arise in your heart is “can anyone forgive God?” or “does God needs to be
forgiven?” today, we’ll found out that it’s possible that God need to be
forgiven by you for your benefit.
Every relationship of man is
horizontal and vertical in nature. Horizontal means man-to-man while Vertical
means man-to-God or God-to-man.
With the above scriptural references,
forgiveness is a must if we must obtain the mercy of God. From the beginning,
we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). From the day
we’re born, we’re born into sin. We own God a lot even our lives. It’s
important you keep this in mind. I was in a restaurant and I ordered for food.
The owner of the shop was drinking strong drink. I started preaching to her
telling her Jesus loves her and that her life can become better if she stop her
bad ways and embrace Him. Then she told me- Pastor, I was once a Christian. I
fasted a lot; I paid my tithes and give offerings yet nothing good was coming
to me. Due to the frustration I went through, I decided to follow the life am
living now. After she said that, I ask myself a question- “How many people have
backslidded because they expected God to move at a set-time yet nothing
happened? The Bible says “he who gives
(hath pity or show kindness) to the poor, LENDS to God…” (Emphasis mine) That
means every act of giving is a debt God owns you. The problem is that most
often He doesn’t have one way He pays back but HE’LL SURELY PAY YOU beyond what
you give. Because you don’t see result today, doesn’t mean it’ll not come or
that it came but the enemy (Satan) has taken it from you.
GOD IS NOT THE REASON FOR YOUR
FAILURES OR DEFEAT! To fail typically means “your strength couldn’t match the
challenges” (Prov. 24:10) while to experience defeat typically means “though
your strength match the challenges yet an extra force counter against you
illegally” (Lk.11:21-22). Whatever it is that you experienced- failure or
defeat, God is not reason why you are down. Many times because we want to sound
“faithful” or we don’t want people to think we’ve “backslidded”, our mouth
blame the devil while our heart blame God. Am talking to people who know
they’re trying to please God or they are committed in God’s Kingdom expansion
agenda and yet it seems nothing tangible is happening in their lives.
