Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
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I was pondering the Lord's prayer this am and the line struck me as it often does "forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".
Often my mind screams how can I forgive those evil doers! The best I come up with is give my angst over to God. Give the evil doers over to God. Love the spark of life within all. Give the evil actions over to God's justice.
How do you all deal with this dichotomy?
I think the word "May" has been omitted from the prayer. I'm completely assuming it may have been an obvious connotation at the time/era.
"Our Creator who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, (May) Thy Kingdom come, (May) Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. (May You) Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. (May You) Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, Forever and ever, Amen."
I struggle with this as well, recite it several times a day. For now I replace “as we forgive” with “as we would like to be able to forgive” as I don’t actually want the Lord to treat me like I treat those who trespass against me. The reason? I’m real good at forgiveness, yes. I understand there are people and there are their nasty demons, separate entities though intertwined until they (and we) can find the inner strength to cast out our demons.
So I forgive, but I don’t forget - and that causes me to turn my back on people who have trespassed against me. I pray for them, in my heart wishing them good health and safety, but don’t want them in my life at all. In many cases I’ve cut off all communication from them. Granted, if I were to get an actual apology (repentance) from them I’d consider having them back in my life in a diminished capacity, but when I lose trust in someone it tends to remain that way.
As far as evil people I’m with you. Yes, it’s their demons who are loathsome, but I can’t find it in my heart to even forgive those who, for example, harm children. There are lines you just don’t cross in life. On an intellectual level one can understand that there are current day beasts who were spawned and brought up in an environment that has taught them to hate good, decent human beings and especially Christians. Or consider the mkultra victims - tortured to a point where their minds have broken and now enslaved to the DS beasts to engage in evil and violence. They never stood a chance to become decent human beings. As I said, I struggle with this daily. Like you, I try, but ultimately leave it in God’s hands.
I can't speak for forgiving people I don't know only because I haven't thought about it. Decades ago I made a conscious decision to forgive some very close family members. Living with hate and other negative feelings only hurts yourself. A good example: sometimes a few times a year I have to see a family member and the wife. I speak and am polite. That's as far as I go, I won't interact with anyone I don't respect. Looking for the answers. Great question.
Maybe we can think of this differently. Pay attention to the Holy WORDS. "those who trespass against us"
Do we forgive equally those who trespass against the BABIES? Against the little children? No. God wants us to hate sin.
The exact same way you do. 😊
The hardest part for me is remembering to do so.
God Bless