Devotional | Forgive Ruthlessly

Psalm 103 verse 2 NIV Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits-verse 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.

Being cold, dark, damp and dated, it was time to update our main bathroom. The process of that renovation has taken a few curly turns. Firstly,  we found borer had taken a lot of ground in the dated wooden panelling. Apparently, all borer need is damp, dark and cold conditions to do its notoriously silent but devastating damage.  We also found the skeleton of a rat under the old bath.  Daylight could be seen through the brickwork.

During this type of demolition and rebuilding, two old foe reared their ugly heads.  Foes Unforgiveness and Bitterness. They came out of the wood work like the proverbial borer. Seeing  similarities in the narrative of the bathroom makeover, it was clear that the borers of unforgiveness and bitterness were well and truly active in my heart. And all it took was for me to see a person that I had struggled with, from the past.

Had I forgiven them at the time? I thought I had. Was I the one with a stink attitude? Were there borers eating away at my testimony? Was I exposed like the daylight in the brickwork? The answer to all these questions was yes.

Proverbs 4 verse 23  Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring  of life.

If we dont guard our hearts, unforgiveness and bitterness can nestle like the borer in our wooden panels. The borer silently and slowly nibble away at the wood, laying eggs for more larvae for months at a time. The damage is not instantly noticeable but closer inspection reveals little entry points of their burrowing. Unforgiveness and bitterness tends to work a bit like that, dont you think?

The bitterness leaks out little by little as does the unforgiveness, given the right environment.  We had considered keeping the wooden panelling and painting it but the damage was too deep. The only way to get rid of the damaged panels was to ruthlessly remove every last one of them as they had no place in our new bathroom.

Likewise,  there is no place in the heart of a redeemed son or daughter of God for these foes.

Ignoring or hardening our hearts against the foes of unforgiveness and bitterness can cause devastation in our lives if we dont guard whats going into and out of our hearts.   What are our choices? We could let the borer of Unforgiveness continue to fester and nibble away along with its cousin Bitterness. What would the outcome be?  Is that what you want?  One day all will be revealed and like the skeleton under the bath, it will be exposed. Or we could forgive quickly and ruthlessly and keep on forgiving.  Is it easy? Absolutely not. Lets not forget Jesus paid the ultimate price to forgive us of our sins.

We honour Jesus by forgiving those who sin against us and for forgiving ourselves.  How much more ruthlessly has Jesus forgiven us? Will you choose to paint over the borer or will you choose to forgive ruthlessly?  Forgiveness means the borer of unforgiveness and the effects of bitterness don’t get a chance to erode the foundations of your life. Let’s be people that regularly guard our hearts so that the well spring of life will be clean and fresh.

1 John 1 verse 9. NIV If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I’m off to put some more wood on the fire. Those wooden panels have made very satisfying firewood.