Forgiveness

I've been doing some thinking about forgiveness. A lot of reading, too. I've decided that forgiveness is a complicated thing for humans. In the Bible, we're told that God is eager to forgive. That He remembers our transgressions no more. They are thrown as far as the east is from the west. The prodigal son returned home and was exalted. Then...we're told in Colossians 3 to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us.

This is an impossible undertaking, apart from Christ. I believe that God looks for a spirit of forgiveness in my heart. It's okay to ask Him to help me forgive. I think He also knows (because He made me) that I can't as easily forget. So I look at the first step to forgiveness as this:

I acknowledge that my adversaries wronged me, and deserve to be punished for it - but I choose not to pursue that - instead letting God handle it, in His time.

If I can do that, I've laid down my pride. Then, it just takes time. Time to heal, time to forget, time to find a new place. But this first step was huge to me.