Colossians 3:13 “Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (ESV)

We have all encountered bad things in life. Maybe it did not happen to you personally, but to someone you know or love. How did you respond?

Our human nature often leads us to focus on the negative side of things first. We might even go so far to ask why God did this to me, even if He was not behind what happened. We tend to blame and get angry, allowing little or no room for mercy or forgiveness.

We do not understand why bad things happen, but what we can take comfort in is that we have a God who knows how to turn those bad things into something beautiful for us. We have a choice whether we are going to allow Him to do it.

Today, I want to ask, if you where the one who caused someone’s pain, what would make you want to change and do things differently? Would it be when the person you hurt continues to be angry with you or when that person shows you mercy and forgiveness with an opportunity to a new start?

Recently, Daniël and I had an encounter where two people tried to steal our car within a blink of an eye. When I realised what happened, I was angry and confused. They did not manage to take the car or anything inside as they were disturbed by a car guard. Except for minor damages, we came off lightly.

My first response was to be angry and I wanted them to pay for what they had done and in that moment it did not feel as if I could trust anybody. Irrespective of how I felt, I could feel the Lord tugging at my heart to pray for them, because they do not yet know His love for them. It made no sense but I decided to obey. A little while later as Daniël and I were talking about it on our way home, he also said that we should forgive them. If everybody could just show a little more mercy and forgiveness, our world could be a different place. Crime is wrong and we will never agree with it, but the only way to change our own hearts that may become bitter, as well as those people who caused pain is by showing forgiveness.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24 ESV)

At the end of the day we are all equal before God and none of us are better than the other. It is only by God’s grace and by having a revelation thereof in our own lives that might keep us from doing hurtful things.

Even when we look at Stephen in the Bible, in the midst of his darkest hour when he was stoned to death, he was not angry at his persecutors, instead he prayed to God to forgive them because they did not know what they were doing. (Acts 7:54-60)

While Jesus was crucified on the cross, He had no hatred towards those who tried to kill Him, but only love for them. His heart was to have a personal relationship with each one of them, no matter the wrongs they have done or the pain they were causing Him.

It takes an act of boldness and grace from God to forgive someone who caused you great pain, but through such an act of forgiveness, you are releasing a great power to change a life. What are you going to do with it?