Leaving the Pain Behind Kenneth Copeland

Have you ever tried to forgive someone…and found you simply couldn’t do it? You’ve cried about it and prayed about it and asked God to help you, but those old feelings of resentment just failed to go away.

Put an end to those kinds of failures in the future by basing your forgiveness on faith rather than feelings. True forgiveness doesn’t have anything at all to do with how you feel. It’s an act of the will. It is based on obedience to God and on faith in Him.

That means once you’ve forgiven a person, you need to consider them permanently forgiven! When old feelings rise up within you and Satan tries to convince you that you haven’t really forgiven them, resist him. Say, “No, I’ve already forgiven that person by faith. I refuse to dwell on those old feelings.”

Then, according to 1 John 1:9, believe that you receive forgiveness and cleansing from the sin of unforgiveness and from all unrighteousness associated with it—including any remembrance of having been wronged!

Have you ever heard anyone say, “I may forgive, but I’ll never forget!”? That’s a second-rate kind of forgiveness that you, as a believer, are never supposed to settle for. You’re to forgive supernaturally “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).

You’re to forgive as God forgives. To release that person from guilt permanently and unconditionally and to operate as if nothing bad ever happened between you. You’re to purposely forget as well as forgive.

As you do that, something supernatural will happen within you. The pain once caused by that incident will disappear. The power of God will wash away the effects of it and you’ll be able to leave it behind you once and for all.

Don’t become an emotional bookkeeper, keeping careful accounts of the wrongs you have suffered. Learn to forgive and forget. It will open a whole new world of blessing for you.