We hope you enjoy this re-post from March 9, 2015. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you. – Ephesians 4:32, Amplified Bible (AMP)

When someone wrongs you and he or she repents of the evil, how do you forgive? Do you forgive as the world forgives? Or, do you forgive as God forgives?

Wordly forgiveness is very shallow. When we forgive in a worldly fashion, we give verbal acceptance of the apology, and we act kindly to the offender for a time. At some point in the future, however, the offender will offend again – either intentionally or unintentionally – and we will pounce like a hungry lion! Not only will we react angrily to the current offense; we will resurrect from the past the old offense we had supposedly forgiven, and we will throw it in the offender’s face along with our displeasure at the current evil act.

Godly forgiveness, however, doesn’t work that way. When God forgives, He forgives according to the true meaning of the word, which Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary renders this way:

• to stop feeling anger toward (someone who has done something wrong)
• to stop blaming (someone)
• to stop requiring payment of ( [such as for] money that is owed)

When God forgives, He stops being angry with us. When God forgives, He stops blaming us for all of the ways in which we’ve wronged Him. When God forgives, He stops requiring payment from us in the form of guilt or sorrow or eternal punishment (although we may be punished on Earth for the consequences of our sin). When God forgives, He puts all of the penalty of our errors on His Son, and by Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice, we can have peace with our Maker after we repent of our sin and ask Him to forgive us.

Now, here’s the question: Do you still hold a grudge against that person who wronged you? Or, did you fully and freely, from your heart, forgive and forget the offense, thereby restoring the relationship to its pre-offense status? If you are just waiting for the chance to throw the offense back in the offender’s face, you are still harboring bitterness, and you haven’t forgiven the way God forgives. If that is the case with you, then it’s time for YOU to ask God to forgive you of your hate and to empower you to forgive others like He has forgiven you!