{"id":11525,"date":"2022-08-30T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/?p=11525"},"modified":"2022-08-30T11:53:09","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T18:53:09","slug":"six-traits-of-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/daily-devotions\/six-traits-of-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Traits of Forgiveness","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 33:4 \u2013 But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.<\/em><\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve read through Genesis, we\u2019ve seen a lot of fighting and strife, especially among family members, but here in Genesis 33 we finally see some hope in a beautiful picture of forgiveness, foreshadowing how Jacob\u2019s son Joseph would later forgive his own brothers in one of the great forgiveness stories of the Bible.<\/p>\n

Jacob had previously run away from home, in fear of his life because of his brother Esau\u2019s rage. They had warred their entire life, since their mother\u2019s womb, and Jacob hadn\u2019t seen his brother in 20 years, assuming he would still be incredibly angry with him. Esau, however, meets him, shows him kindness and forgiveness, and embraces him.<\/p>\n

From this story, we learn six things about forgiveness:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Forgiveness allows you to move on with or without the other person.<\/strong> If you\u2019re able to reconcile relationship, then that is the ultimate goal, but if not, you\u2019re still able to forgive them. Jacob forgave Laban, but still moved on without him. On the other hand, Esau forgave Jacob, but they were able to reconcile and move forward in relationship.<\/li>\n
  2. Forgiveness is how you pass the case to God\u2019s court to judge. <\/strong>Ultimately, we must remember that we have wronged God in much grander ways than anyone else has wronged us, so we don\u2019t deserve to hold wrongs against others. This doesn\u2019t mean we trust them again, but we are called to forgive them, giving it up to God to ultimately judge. There are many things considered \u201csin\u201d that God calls us to obey that the world wouldn\u2019t consider a \u201ccrime\u201d.<\/li>\n
  3. Forgiveness starts one day but happens many days. <\/strong>As Jesus says in Matthew 18:22 when asked how many times we should forgive, \u201cI do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times\u201d. We may feel like we\u2019ve forgiven someone, but a circumstance may bring them to mind and we have to continually forgive them. It\u2019s both a one-time and an ongoing process.<\/li>\n
  4. Forgiveness is choosing to heal so you don\u2019t hurt others. <\/strong>If we are bitter and unforgiving, we can start to live in an embittered state and turn the ways we\u2019ve been hurt towards hurting others out of our unhappiness. Forgiving allows you to move forward in a healthy and healed up way.<\/li>\n
  5. Forgiveness opens you to blessing your enemy as the test of forgiveness. <\/strong>You know you\u2019ve truly forgiven someone if want good for someone and can pray for them to be blessed, not cursed. As Jesus says in Luke 6:28, \u201c\u2026bless those who curse you\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n
  6. Forgiveness is a gift to the person who hurt you and to yourself. <\/strong>Forgiveness is primarily for you and the person may or may not know that you\u2019ve forgiven them. But it helps you to move forward in a healthy way physically, mentally, emotionally, and relationally.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you want to learn more about forgiveness, I would encourage you to read R.T. Kendall\u2019s Total Forgiveness<\/em> or watch the sermon from his visit to Trinity Church in summer 2021 by the same title by clicking here: https:\/\/realfaith.com\/sermons\/total-forgiveness-r-t-kendall\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Who do you need to forgive or are praying for reconciliation with?<\/em><\/p>\n

    To help you study the book of Genesis with us, check out the third free e-book study guide here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    To get daily devos texted to you Monday-Friday, text DEVOTIONS to 99383. Click here to find the sermon series<\/a> that accompanies this devotional series.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Genesis 33:4 \u2013 But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. As we\u2019ve read through Genesis, we\u2019ve seen a lot of fighting and strife, especially among family members, but here in Genesis 33 we finally see some hope in a beautiful picture of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":6,"featured_media":9485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[],"ministries":[],"topics":[225],"series":[375],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11526,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11525\/revisions\/11526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11525"},{"taxonomy":"ministries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ministries?post=11525"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=11525"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=11525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}