WHY NOT BURY THE AXE

By Charles R. Grisham

Have you ever noticed how some people refuse to forgive. They hold a
grudge and literally poison their life and the lives of others with
their grudging spirit.

To carry a grudge is a losers game in every way. It is the very
ultimate frustration because it leaves you with more pain than you had
in the first place. Recall the pain being wronged, the hurt of being
stung, cheated, demeaned. Doesn’t the memory of it fuel the fire of
fury again? Do you feel that hurt each time your memory lights on the
people who you feel did you wrong? Many times it isn’t even that
someone has wronged you. It is sometimes due to resentment and jealousy
which has a “deep-rooted” base of pride. Your own memory becomes a
movie within your soul that plays unending reels of your old rendezvous
with pain, anger, resentment and the grudging is fueled again. Is this
fair to yourself… this wretched justice of not forgiving.

The Spirit of grudging…plotting to get revenge …. outbursts of
anger are poisoning your spiritual life.

The only way to heal the pain that will not heal itself is to forgive
the person you feel has hurt you. Lay aside the person you are jealous
of. The person you cunningly stalk whom you are jealous of and want to
hurt and bring down.

You will be the loser. You will ultimately die on your own poison.
(Separation from God’s favor and presence).

The only way to heal the pain that will not heal itself is to forgive
the person who hurt you; or the one you resent deeply. Forgiving will
heal your memory as you change your memory’s vision.

When you become willing to release the wrong-doer from the wrong, you
cut a malignant tumor out of your life. When you cease to harbor ill
feelings toward others you begin to experience a freedom that triggers
your own release.

You are setting a prisoner free! That prisoner is yourself. You may or
may not realize that others see you as a prisoner all the time. Your
family….your friends….and your pastor.

So, why not be free? Why not bury the axe? Life is too short to spend
it in your own self made prison. Forgive…..forget…..and be free.

(The above material was published by THE GOSPEL TIDINGS, August 1993)

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