REBUILDING: Confusing Trust with Forgiveness

Psalm 51:8-10, Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

When a reader read yesterdays Blog about lying, they requested that today's be about rebuilding trust. I struggled with this all night and through today, as this is something I am dealing with in my current season. I prayed and asked God to give me some insight, I feel He led me to write about the difference between trust and forgiveness. One of the biggest mistakes or confusion we must overcome, is confusing the two. I hope this entry will help clarify a few things about this process. 

I read an article from MMI, regarding this exact subject. The article states, "But in reality, forgiving someone and trusting them are two different acts of faith. You can forgive a person without trusting them. But you cannot trust a person without forgiving them first. It’s important to realize that trusting a person is not a prerequisite to forgiving them —trusting God is. You are trusting God, when you forgive." I don't think it can be defined any better than that. God can and will help each of us, move past this season in our lives. What can happen is the harboring of the anger and that is were we tend to confuse trust and forgiveness.

If you notice the article says these are two different acts of Faith. So we must first have Faith and forgive, not forgetting, but setting aside the trespass just as God does for us when we ask him too in Jesus name. Without forgiving, God makes it very clear that we cannot receive our own blessings. Mark 11:25, "But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too." We must learn to look at our offenders through Gods eyes and see them as He does. This is probably the most difficult action to understand, as the world would have us believe that the act of forgiving means we have forgotten the offense. It by no means infers that, it only allows the healing to begin and God to step in on our behalf. We are not meant to understand this process, in fact I am not sure we could no matter how much we try. This idea is supported in Proverbs 3:5, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

While reading the above quote again something else just clicked, when I forgive, I am truly trusting God to take care of me. WOW!! That is so powerful.We must have Faith and trust in God for many areas of this process. We trust He will help us through the healing, we trust Him for restoration of the relationship, we trust He will not let us suffer this again. In Psalm 37:5-6, Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. God promises to act on the injustice against you. So you must trust in Him to handle whatever it is you bring to Him, in His time and in His way. Gods plan for each of us can only be fulfilled if we fully trust in Him and His plan. 

 God promises in Joel 2:25, (The LORD says, "I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.) to restore us back what we lost. He goes on to say in Joel 2:26, "Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the Lord your God, who does these miracles for you." By trusting in God he tells us that forgiveness will bring our life's blessings back, we must trust in Him and take the first step and forgive. I promise this is one of the most difficult things you will face as a Christian, yet it is arguably also one of the most important. All we have to do is Trust in Him and forgive those who have sinned against us. After that step back open our hearts and let Him work. He will, He has written it, therefor it is better than any contract. DO YOU TRUST IN GOD? Show it now, do not waste another minute. Join me in the prayer and lets see what He does.

Let's Pray: Father God, In Jesus name, Please forgive us for our sins. Father forgive us for those we may have hurt and Father give us the strength to trust in You and allow us to Forgive those who have offended us. Father we know the enemies world does not want this, he wants death and discontent, however Father we know and claim as it is written that we forgive others and stand asking You to start the healing and restorations of our lives. We rebuke the enemy and his world and stand for Love and Your Kingdom. Father Thank You for all that You do in our lives and Thank You for your son Jesus in who we trust and in His name, ask all of these things....AMEN.