Greetings brethren, I hope it's well with you.
I started writing on this lesson by Brother Eli Soriano two days ago. You can find the first part here.
Why do we remember the shortcomings of people, the sins of people, the ugly things that were done to us by people? Because we do not walk in love.
Why is it for all the things that are forgettable, why is it that the bad things that they have done to you are not very easy to forget? Because there is a force
that brings back to your memory, the evil, the ugly things that had happened, so that the hatred, the bitterness can remain. And while that bitterness and hatred remain, you are under the charge of being a murderer.
Let's see 1 John 3:15 (KJV)
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
The work of satan is to do everything to take away the eternal life God promised us, to disqualify us from having life eternal. It is the work of Satan, by preserving the hate we have in our hearts against a brother or a fellow human being.
The anger, the hatred, and, the bitterness that stays in your heart are bullets or the arms of satan to remove you from God's plan of eternal life and instead make you face eternal punishment in hell because according to the word of God, no murder have eternal life in them.
So what we can do to forget this hatred
is already recorded in the Bible. Let us read in the book of Ephesians 4:31-32 (KJV)
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
So, if we walk in love, we will learn how to forgive. The reason we still remember the shortcomings of people, the sins of people, and the ugly things that were done to us is that we don't walk in love. Love eradicates all hatred. Love will eradicate all bitterness. Love will take away every evil thing in our being.
If you find it hard to overcome hatred, if you find it hard to forget, when it is very easy for you to remember the ugly things done to you by other people, it means that the love of God doesn't reign in your heart. To support that claim let us read in the book of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (KJV)
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Everything may pass away, but love remains. And that is what, many of us are lacking in our hearts that's making it hard for us to forget the wrong done against us.
When you forgive, you find it very hard to forget all those ugly things that were done to you by your offender. But, taking that love recommended for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be able to forget because that love is greater than all hatred, and that love is God. You can read about that in I John 4:8, 16.
This is where Brother Eli ended this series and I hope it answers all your questions about why you find it hard to forgive and forget. I have learned a great deal from this teaching and have equipped myself with relevant knowledge of the Bible.
May God bless you for reading.
