Romans 12:2 ‘And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’
DAILY READING; Galatians 3:19-4:20; Lamentations 1-2; Psalm 145.
Rising above their nation’s past, Rwanda’s genocide survivors are teaching the world the secret to forgiveness and healing. Years after Hutu extremists killed about one million people in a devastating genocide, the Rwandan nation has continued on the path of reconciliation, mostly due to the willingness of its people to be transformed through accepting the teachings of Christ.
Denise Uwimana is a survivor of the genocide, who went through a horrendous experience during the crisis. She has written a book to tell her story and the power of forgiveness.
In August 1994, soon after the war, she had gone back to her ransacked home from where she had fled during the killings. She found her house emptied of its furniture, and many of her property stolen, even the crops had been torn out of her garden. The final straw came when she saw a woman outside her house wearing a dress that had been a gift from her husband to celebrate the birth of their third child.
Seeing the stolen dress, it was a struggle for Uwimana to forgive what the Hutus had done. However, she made the decision to conform to God’s Word and forgive the Hutu neighbors who had deeply hurt her, including killing members of her family.
The next day, at a gathering of the villagers, Uwimana was able to reconcile with some of these Hutu neighbors who had asked for her forgiveness. She told the gathered crowd that she had forgiven them. As a result of her decision some of the other Tutsi survivors, who were unwilling to forgive had called her a traitor. But Uwimana felt it was important to obey God, rather than follow her own sentiments, knowing she had only survived in the first place by God’s grace.
As difficult and as impossible as it seemed, despite all that had happened, she learned to co-exist with her former killer neighbors. By God’s grace she has been able to let go of the past and embrace a new life based on the Biblical teachings of forgiveness.
Romans 12:2 says ‘And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’
It has been said to err is human, but to forgive is divine. Indeed there are times we can feel so deeply hurt that it becomes quite difficult to think of forgiving those who so maltreated us. Learning to forgive is one of the hardest, but yet most important lessons one must learn in life. As Christians, forgiveness is the basis of our faith. We learn to forgive because we are instructed by God to do so. Jesus says clearly offenses will come. No matter who you are, the one guarantee you have about life is that you will be offended at one time or the other. We must therefore always remember that it does not really matter why someone has chosen to hurt us, what really matters is that we recognize that forgiveness is a necessity.
Ephesians 4:32 encourages us to be tender hearted, not adamant, ready to forgive even as God has forgiven us.
We need to forgive others because we also need to be forgiven. We are not perfect and we often make mistakes. Everyone has offended God at one time or the other. Despite this, He did not cast us away, but allowed us to confess our sins and return to Him. Therefore as we have received mercy, let us also learn to show mercy
Forgiveness has less to do with the guilty person’s reaction to it. It’s about obeying God’s instruction. It is also a decision not to allow yourself to be victimized twice by giving the pain room to continue to operate in your life and affect you. Forgiveness liberates your heart from the anger and pain. It means you have moved on with your life and no longer in chains, nor continually victimized by rehearsing that issue or incident. The truth is that unforgiveness is life-destroying. It is the root of many terminal illnesses and in medical books it is listed as a ‘disease’.
While it sometimes seems easier to follow our human inclinations and hold people in unforgiveness, it is always better to conform to God’s Word and let them go. On this journey of destiny we must let go of the weights that try to trip us up. The lighter our hearts the faster we can move. Indeed when our hearts are dominated by God’s Word we will always conform to His will, elevate His Word above everything else, and obey Him at all costs.
PRAYER: Lord, please help me to always conform to Your Word no matter how difficult it may seem sometimes. I trust you are in control of my life, and I know that even now, You are working all things together for my good in Jesus Name. .
QUOTE
When God places His hand upon a man in life nothing can come against him, this is because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. WORDBITE 222