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What’s Not To Be Offended By?
Our Family, Friends
Our government
Racism, religious prejudice
Rejection of biblical sexual values everywhere
Our enemies
What Is Forgiveness
The conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness.
The Process of Forgiveness:What It is
Choosing to completely free the offender from any blame
Feeling released from the anger and other negative feelings you had toward the offender
The path to reconciliation if the offender is willing
The best way to live with unmet expectations
The Process of Forgiveness:What It is Not
Pretending to forget the offense
Minimizing the severity of the offense
Rationalizing that we should not have been offended
Committing yourself to reengage with a person who might offend you again.
God & Science Agree:Forgiving Offenses is Life-giving
Forgiveness makes us happier..and those around us!
Forgiveness improves our health
Forgiveness protects relationships
Forgiveness is essential for healthy marriages & families
God & Science Agree:Forgiving Offenses is Life-giving
Forgiveness boosts kindness and connectedness
Forgiveness can help heal deep emotional wounds
Forgiveness can heal individuals, communities, cities and nations.
God & Science Agree:Forgiving Offenses is Life-giving
Dr. Fred Luskin is the director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects at Stanford University
U. Of Massachusetts wrote a professional paper on how forgiveness training helped heal the wounds of Rwanda from the 1994 massacre of 750,000 people.
God & Science Agree:Forgiving Offenses is Life-giving
Dr. Loren, a psychology professor at Luther College, taught forgiveness in 2002 to the survivors of the terrible war in Sierra Leone with impressive results.
Forgiveness helped overcome apartheid in South Africa:
“…when the security police routinely tortured him, he used to think, “These are God’s children and yet they are behaving like animals. They need us to help them recover the humanity they have lost.”
Physically Healed by Forgiving
Former Prostitute in Brazil
Lady in Foley, MN.
Grandma in Brazil
About 70% of physical illnesses may be due to stress
Spiritually Healed by Forgiving
Forgive to be forgiven: Matthew 6 & Mark 11:25-26
Good will discipline us if we do not forgive: Matthew 18:34-35
How to Pray Forgiveness For Others
“I forgive them for what they did that made me feel____
I release them from all blame for _________________
I bless them in Jesus Name and Pray that God will restore our relationship
How to Forgive Yourself
I confess my fault (________) to God and accept His free and full forgiveness for that mistake that Jesus paid for on the cross.
“I forgive myself for ___________________
I no longer blame myself for that mistake.
How to Forgive God
I acknowledge that whatever God does in my life is done out of love for me. I admit that many things happen to me that are not caused by God.
I admit that I have blamed God for ______________
I release God from all the blame I unjustly held against Him
I receive God’s forgiveness for accusing Him wrongly.
How Unforgiveness Seems to Benefit Us
It empowers us
It protects us
It validates that a wrong has been done to us
It is a form of revenge
His Truth for Our Reasons
Allow your self to feel the anger for the offense
Discovery what is the hidden benefit of not forgiving
Hold that belief before the Lord for His perspective
Our feelings and reasons will always change when we sense God’s truth replacing our reasons
Others to Forgive
Family & friends
Authority figures in government, at work, at school, in the church
Organizations, companies, militant groups, all enemies
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