UNFORGIVENESS

by Derek Prince

I pointed out on the basis of The Lord’s Prayer and several other passages of the New Testament this vital principle that we can only claim forgiveness from God in the same measure that we forgive other people. In The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said, “Forgive us our trespasses [or our debts] as we forgive those who trespass against us.” He tied us down to not expecting forgiveness from God in a greater proportion than we forgive others.

And then you remember, we looked at the story—the unforgiving servant—the parable, who was forgiven a tremendous debt of six million dollars but refused to forgive a fellow servant a petty debt of 17 dollars. And we saw three great lessons. First of all, that unforgiveness is wickedness. Secondly, that our failure to forgive provokes God’s anger. And thirdly, that our failure to forgive causes God to deliver us to the tormentors.

And I pointed out that many, many professing Christians today are in the hands of tormentors. They’re undergoing various kinds of torments—the physical torment of arthritis or ulcers or migraine. The mental torment of confusion and fear. Spiritual torment sometimes of accusations of Satan that God hasn’t really forgiven them or they’re not really saved or they’ve committed the unforgivable sin. I’ve met Christians in so many different kinds of torments. And I’ve learned by experience and from Scripture that many times the reason that they are in the hands of the tormentors is that they have failed to forgive others.

Now when confronted with this requirement that we have to forgive others as we want God to forgive us, I’ve often heard people say, “I can’t forgive.” But this arises from a misunderstanding of the nature of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not an emotion; it’s a decision. You can’t work up the emotion, but you can make the decision. This means that you can forgive if you know how.