How tightly are you gripping your grudges?

By Misty Strieff Prine

“If only we freely forgave with as much strength as we grip grudges.” – Rachel Wojo

Grudges, they are nasty little things. What is a grudge anyway? A grudge is a persistent feeling of ill will or resentment resulting from a past insult or injury. Ahhhh. Yep, that would be pretty accurate. I want you to think about a grudge for a moment you may be carrying around. We all have at least one that we carry around or have carried around at some point in time. You may not think you have one but it may resurface when you see someone that hurt you and that rush of hurt comes sweeping over you all over again.

First of all, we are human. We are weak and vulnerable and when someone hurts us so deeply, that hurt lingers. We may not intend on doing so, but it’s easy to hold a grudge because we hold on to hurt and it is so very hard to overcome. It sometimes takes years to even remotely get to a point of forgiveness. Each time you come close to being a peace with forgiveness, something happens, and you may be pushed further and further away from forgiving that person. The enemy knows when God is moving in your heart.

I struggled and still do with this in my life at different times. I’m human after all. But I realized something over the years. As a Christian, I felt like I failed so badly at forgiveness for the longest time. I had forgiven so many yet in some situations I was constantly surrounded by those who hurt me the most. It seemed like an impossible situation to be in. Was I going to completely fail this test? God taught me something. Each person required a different level and approach of forgiveness. Some people knew how much pain they inflicted, at least to some level, and others had no idea just how bad they did hurt me. Both will never understand how they changed my life for the better though. I like to think instead that through difficult situations and through the power of forgiveness, God empowers us to become better people and in that lies a powerful testimony to everyone that sees that healing begin. In doing so, we begin to see that behind every individual that harbors ill will towards us and treats us poorly is a person who is facing difficult situations in their own lives and we often become the target of that difficulty. Understanding that concept and seeing others, even those who hurt us, through the Lord's eyes and knowing that because He is willing to forgive them just as He is us, enables us to understand and appreciate forgiving our enemies a lot more. Difficult people and situations in our lives can either do one of two things. It can weaken us or it can make us stronger. We choose the outcome. Let our choice be one that glorifies God!