Forgiving Someone Who Hurt You

 

It’s not easy to forgive enemies. But what about when a fellow Christian hurts you? Or a friend or family member? What factors should you consider?

Sometimes the most easy-to-understand statements are the most difficult to practice. Probably millions of people have repeated Jesus’ words from His model prayer in Matthew 6: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” And probably millions have discovered that while it’s easy to desire forgiveness from God, it can be really hard to extend it to someone else.

It might be even more difficult, some have observed, to forgive our friends than our enemies. Why? Because we expect wounds from strangers or enemies, but being profoundly hurt by someone we love cuts more deeply. When we are hurt by a friend, family member or fellow Christian, it can feel like a betrayal or treachery.

Yes, forgiveness is challenging, but necessary (Matthew 6:14-15). Here are four keys to understanding how to deal with some of the complexities involved.

1. Time—and hard work and repetition—heals all wounds.

The old adage “time heals all wounds” is woefully inadequate. Would you leave a serious physical wound untended, believing that it would heal fine if given enough time? Of course not.

Just as serious physical wounds need repeated proper treatment over a long period of time, so do emotional wounds. Forgiveness is a key treatment for good mental and spiritual health. But forgiving others, while it often does take time, usually requires two more important elements—hard work and repetition.

Our perfect God can immediately remove our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). But we weaker humans struggle. For us, forgiveness is frequently a repetitive process requiring diligent work over a period of time.

Have you ever thought you had forgiven someone, only to discover that when something triggered memories of a bad experience, hurt feelings came flooding back? What should you do? Rinse and repeat!

We sometimes find ourselves needing to forgive once again what we had already forgiven before! That’s often the battle we face, but repeated efforts eventually settle forgiveness permanently into our mind-set.

I once knew a lady who had been through a long-term abusive relationship. Hurts ran deep, but she knew that bitterness would destroy her, and that forgiveness was the tool God would use to help her heal.

Years later she related to me how it took her five years of persistently working at it, continually praying for God’s help to be able to forgive and not be bitter. Then one day, she said, “I realized, it’s gone!” The hurt had finally drained away, but only because she tenaciously fought to follow God and do the right thing.

At no time did she say, “This forgiveness thing just doesn’t work for me.” No, she kept at it, kept seeking God’s help . . . because it was the right thing to do!

Her motivation ran deeper than just seeking personal peace of mind, though. She knew the first part of Ephesians 4:32, where it instructs us to be “forgiving one another,” but the last part also resonated: “even as God in Christ forgave you.”

She remembered going to God many times, asking for His forgiveness for her part in crucifying Christ—which is what our sins have done (Acts 2:36-38)—and for God’s repeated graciousness to her. We, in turn, are to take on His graciousness and extend it to others who have hurt us.

Yes, it’s hard, and we may have to do it repeatedly over time, but forgiveness does heal wounds.

2. The forgive-and-forget fallacy.

I’ve talked with people who have been confused because they carry vivid memories of the sins of others. They ask, “Aren’t we supposed to forgive and forget? If I remember, does that mean I have not forgiven?”

Forgiveness is complicated and often challenging—sometimes impossibly challenging on a human level! But with God’s divine help, we can meet that challenge!Is forgiving the same as forgetting? Do we even have the capacity to “forgive and forget”?

When God says, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” in Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17, does He establish that as the standard to which we are held?

While He expects us to forgive others, God did not create us with a memory-erase function. Rather, He wants us to learn to properly deal with memories and use them to our advantage.

Many places in the Bible tell us to remember, and sometimes those are painful recollections. Five times in Deuteronomy God told Israel to “remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt” and that God brought them out. That must have been excruciating—they would have recalled the Egyptians’ brutality, even the massacring of their children! Today we can recall our own slavery to sin and the pain some of those sins caused. We can also remember how the sins of others inflicted a lot of pain on us.

But notice what God adds: “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes” (Deuteronomy 16:12, emphasis added). It doesn’t say, “Remember and never forget what others have done to you, so you can get even!” No, we are to remember the pain so we can learn to live God’s way. Isn’t one of the greatest values of memory to retain life’s lessons so we don’t repeat past mistakes—even other people’s mistakes that deeply hurt us?

When striving to forgive others, it’s not wrong to ask God to help us put those hurts behind us.

But if those memories are resurrected, and even if you spend some time dwelling on the past, that doesn’t mean you have not forgiven.

Sometimes situations arise that trigger unpleasant memories. You see something on TV, hear a song, see somebody, and immediately you flash back to that hurtful situation. Whether that is good or bad depends on what you do with the memories. You may momentarily become emotional, angry or depressed. But that doesn’t mean you have not previously forgiven. It does mean that you may have to walk once again through the forgiveness process you’ve been through before.

Remembering the past is natural, but we have to make it productive. Dwelling on the negative by playing that tape over and over again in your mind will encourage bitterness or resentment to rise to the surface.

On the other hand, as forgiveness is worked on, over time bad memories often grow dimmer and come less frequently. And as memories fade, desires to retaliate or be avenged also lessen. The pain eases because the wound is no longer so near the surface and so easily irritated.

Consider the apostle Paul. He wrote in Philippians 3:13-15 about “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.”

The funny thing is, he hadn’t really forgotten the past! A few verses earlier he vividly described painful things in his past, things he now called garbage! While the memories weren’t gone, his point was that he wasn’t dwelling on his own dirty deeds or the dirty deeds of others toward him. He knew his past, but also knew he was forgiven, and knew he was forgiving of others, and that kept him balanced and moving forward in life.

Don’t try to forgive and forget—it’s impossible. But do aim to control the memories of the past through God’s Spirit, learning, growing and drawing ever closer to Him.

3. Forgiveness doesn’t always clean up the mess.

Forgiveness doesn’t always cancel every penalty of sin—the mess sins create. Even after God has canceled the spiritual penalty of eternal death in our lives, we may yet live with certain consequences.

For example, after abusing his or her body for years through smoking, a person may repent and stop. Yet I have known forgiven Christians who died from smoking-induced lung cancer. Should we conclude, “He died of cancer, therefore God must not have forgiven him”? No, even after God forgives us, we sometimes suffer physical and emotional penalties.

The same is true of our relationships with others. Even if you forgive someone, sin’s penalties may linger. Commonly, relationships suffer—marriages may end, family connections may crack, trust may be lost.

You may work through the forgiveness issues you have regarding another person, but you might not see reconciliation. It’s wonderful when you see one person’s forgiving of another doing away with the penalty of a broken relationship, but it doesn’t always happen.

That’s because reconciliation requires two elements from two people: repentance and forgiveness. Let’s say one person mistreats another and causes great damage. Only four results can come out of that relationship:

1. The offender doesn’t repent, and the offended doesn’t forgive (the worst-case scenario).
2. The offender repents, but the offended doesn’t forgive.
3. The offender doesn’t repent, but the offended forgives anyway.
4. The offender repents, and the offended forgives.

Only in the last one will the best-case scenario—reconciliation—take place. In the first instance neither person does right. In scenarios 2 and 3, where one does his or her part but the other doesn’t, the one who does the right thing will be clear before God, but the human relationship will remain unreconciled.

Until healing reconciliation takes place, penalties will still be felt. But, again, the fact that penalties remain does not necessarily mean that forgiveness has not been extended.

4. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Alexander Pope’s observation holds a lot of truth. All humans can forgive some things on their own. When the toddler in the grocery store blurts out, “You’re old and fat,” and his embarrassed mother begs my forgiveness, my feelings may be hurt, but I can forgive his childish transgression.

But sooner or later we run into forgiveness issues that we cannot work through on our own. We need something divine—God’s mind, God’s help. Our capacity to forgive will only come from His working in us, raising us to higher levels of spiritual performance than we are capable of on our own.

These are the times when we humbly appeal to God, “I’m so deeply wounded I don’t have it in me to forgive. Yet I want to follow You. I don’t want this to destroy me or my relationships with You or with others. Please help me with the spiritual understanding and perseverance I need to work through this.”

He will!

Forgiveness is complicated and often challenging—sometimes impossibly challenging on a human level! But with God’s divine help, we can meet that challenge!

God’s Forgiveness

 

God hates sin. It is the opposite of how He thinks and acts; it causes suffering and death. Yet our merciful God is willing to forgive all our sins!

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Psalm 103:2-4).

There is no one who doesn’t make mistakes—little ones or big ones. We all sin. God is disappointed when we do, but not shocked. He knew that we would sin when He gave man the freedom to choose, sometimes called free will.

God’s goal in creating mankind was to have a family of sons and daughters like Himself. “Like Himself” means having the character to choose what is right instead of what is wrong.

It takes time, effort and God’s help to achieve that kind of character. We must overcome the weakness of our human nature, the influence of Satan and the many sinful habits that we often slip into.

So, in life’s journey, we will at times fail to live up to the standards given in God’s Word. God in His mercy knew this would be the case, and so He provided a way that we could be forgiven of those sins.

We all sin

There is only one human who has not sinned—Jesus Christ. The rest of us, you and me, have sinned—and will sin—many times!

King Solomon wrote, “For there is not a just man on earth who does good [all the time] and does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

The apostle Paul echoed the same truth: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Sins are actions contrary to God’s laws. They bring the penalty of death (Romans 6:23). We all are, or have been, under that penalty, living on death row. The only way to have that penalty removed is through God’s forgiveness.

It is His desire that we should not have to suffer such a terrible price.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

He wants us to come to understand that wonderful, encouraging truth. He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

God forgives

When we come to a time in our lives when we see sin is wrong, want to stop and perhaps wonder how we can clean up our lives, we soon realize it is impossible for us to do so on our own.

“Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin’?” (Proverbs 20:9).

We cannot do it by ourselves, but God is more than willing to help us. He did not plan for us to fail. He is a God of love and mercy, who both desires that we bury the past and provides a way by which that can be accomplished.

From the beginning, God’s plan included a way for our sins to be forgiven.

When God created mankind, He anticipated that people would sin and would need a Redeemer from those sins. So, from the very beginning, His plan included sending His Son to give His life that we may have forgiveness.

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

What is forgiveness?

Paul wrote, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)—and not just the temporary death that comes to all, but eternal death. Earlier, he had stated that “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

There is no sin so great that God will not forgive—if we repent of it and seek His forgiveness.This truth is mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament also. For example, Ezekiel 18:4 says, “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die.”

Then the prophet Ezekiel was inspired to add:

“But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live” (verses 21-22).

God makes possible redemption, which is explained more fully in other passages that make it clear forgiveness is nothing we can earn.

“For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him” (2 Samuel 14:14).

God has provided a means, a way.

Whenever we sin, we incur a debt. But God has provided a way that the penalty, or debt, can be paid by someone else—His Son, Jesus.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Notice what the prophet Isaiah wrote centuries earlier:

“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool’” (Isaiah 1:18).

And again, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).

How do we receive forgiveness?

What should we do when we sin? How can we receive God’s forgiveness?

One of the first steps is to admit and confess our sins to God.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10).

In his first sermon Peter added more details of the steps we should take: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Repentance is turning from what is wrong to what is right, as defined by the laws of God.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7).

Christ told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

Every sin can be forgiven

Sometimes we think our sins are so bad that God wouldn’t be willing to forgive us.

However, there is no sin so great that God will not forgive—if we repent of it and seek His forgiveness.

“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things” (Acts 13:38-39).

Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is great enough to cover any sin we might commit and come to regret. His sacrifice can cover the sins of all mankind.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14).

Corinth was an extremely sinful city. Many who became followers of Christ had earlier been living very sinful lives, participating in all kinds of perversity.

“And such were some of you,” Paul wrote. “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Paul said they had now been forgiven. Those men and women had been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

That same cleansing is available to us all. Whatever the sin—secret or open, greater or lesser, done deliberately or in ignorance, of omission or commission—any wrong we have done can be totally blotted out through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

What if we sin again after forgiveness?

What if we mess up again after asking for forgiveness? Can we be forgiven again?

Actually, it’s not a matter of “what if,” for we all will, from time to time, slip up and sin again. Even while trying not to, we all slip up at times. But as long as we keep trying—wanting to change, being sorry for our mistakes—God is very willing to forgive.

God is merciful and will continue to forgive as long as we keep trying. Those mistakes should occur less and less often as we grow spiritually and use His Spirit to help us master the pulls of sin.

The book of Proverbs mentions that a righteous person may fall seven times. That implies he gets up every time.

“For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity” (Proverbs 24:16).

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).

There are hundreds of scriptures proclaiming God’s desire and willingness to forgive. For example:

• Jesus Christ “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5).
• “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered . . . I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah” (Psalm 32:1, 5).
• “You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin” (Psalm 85:2).
• “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth’” (Exodus 34:6).

God is a merciful God. His mercy extends to a thousand generations. He expects us to show mercy to others who have wronged us.

In an example of how we should pray to God for forgiveness, Jesus stated: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). We must forgive others if we expect God to forgive us. (That doesn’t mean we must continue to associate with them if they continue to do us wrong.)

When Peter asked Christ how many times he should forgive others, Christ said seven times 70, or 490 times (Matthew 18:21-22). Couldn’t we expect much more from God?

It is His desire that we learn from our mistakes, which bring only problems, pain and emptiness into our lives. He wants us to see that sin brings no real lasting joy or fulfillment. He deeply desires that we come to see there is a better way—the way of our Creator.

Learn more about God’s forgiveness and the steps involved in conversion in our booklet Change Your Life.

How to Pray for Forgiveness

 

We naturally want the blessing of being forgiven. But we don’t naturally know how to pray for forgiveness. God recorded these examples to help.

Have you ever had to tell someone, “I’m sorry”? Or even more meaningfully, “Please forgive me”?

Asking for forgiveness is hard! Actually, asking for forgiveness means much more than just saying, “I’m sorry!” As a child, you may have had your parents instruct you to tell a sibling “I’m sorry!” You might have said it without really meaning it.

But think about what it is like to also ask for forgiveness—maybe asking your mate to forgive you for doing something that hurt him or her, or asking your child to forgive you for missing an event he or she really wanted you to attend.

Now think of that on a much higher plane. How does one ask God for forgiveness?

Psalm 51, a prayer for forgiveness

One of my favorite passages is Psalm 51 where David came before God after he had been confronted with his sin with Bathsheba. Through this particular psalm, we are given a clear example of how to go to God in a prayer for forgiveness.

Psalm 51 begins: “A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions” (superscription and verse 1).

Ask for mercy

We see the first thing David did was ask for mercy. Not the mercy of man, but the mercy of God, according to His lovingkindness.

Then David reminded God of His tender mercies and asked that God blot out his transgressions. To “blot out” means to erase, or to wipe away. David did not want a stain on his relationship with God.

Wash and cleanse me!

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (verse 2). Here David continued the thought, and he was clearly meditating on the fact that sin was a stain on his character. He knew that he couldn’t be forgiven through any of his own actions, but he had to depend on God.

“For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me” (verse 3). Not everyone reaches this next step in asking for forgiveness from God or from others. We must truly acknowledge that we have done something wrong.

As mentioned earlier, when our parents asked us to say “I’m sorry,” it often didn’t require the confession of being wrong.

Yet here, David accepted the fact that he was guilty, and he expressed his remorse to God. He knew God was aware of his sin.

Sin is the transgression of God’s law

“Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge” (verse 4). Sin is breaking God’s law. If it is not repented of, it will separate us from God (1 John 3:4; Isaiah 59:2).

Humility and, as David said, a broken and contrite spirit are necessary for us to seek God’s forgiveness.“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom” (Psalm 51:5-6).

In making this statement, David was not imputing evil to his mother or his conception. Rather, he was acknowledging that his nature, from his earliest recollection, was beset with a propensity to sin. David’s repentance was one of deep emotion and feeling. He knew that God wanted him to change, and he knew that he had to change from the inside out, not just in appearances.

Purge me and make me clean!

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (verse 7). Hyssop was a plant used in sacred purification ceremonies. David asked to be purged, or cleansed to the fullest extent, to be even whiter than snow.

“Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice” (verse 8).

His sin had become a great burden on his mind, to the point that he compared it to having his bones broken with the weight of carrying it. Sin should have the same weight in our minds as well. As David was asking God for His joy, so we should ask Him to bring us out of our mistakes and our trials and bless us again with a fresh start.

Put my sins away

“Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities” (verse 9). David again asked for God to remove his sins from him and to put them away.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (verse 10). We see the idea repeated that David felt covered by sin and wanted to be cleansed. He also knew that the Spirit of God within him had to be restored. He wanted an “established” or “secured” spirit.

“Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (verse 11).

As Isaiah noted, sin actually causes a separation from God until that sin is repented of (Isaiah 59:2; 1 John 1:9). Sin caused the death of Jesus Christ, and it brings a penalty on us that only the Father and Son can remove (Romans 3:23; 6:23).

David’s desire that others also repent

Next, we see David seeking joy and happiness again—this time in order for him to positively affect others.

“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You” (Psalm 51:12-13). David wanted others to experience what it was like to have their sins forgiven and relationships restored.

Even today we are still learning to repent and ask for forgiveness by studying David’s example.

“Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise” (verses 14-15).

When David prayed for forgiveness, he also asked that God remove his guilt. His sorrow was a godly sorrow, and it produced not only cleansing, but desire and zeal—indignation and vindication (2 Corinthians 7:10-11; see also our article on “Godly Sorrow”).

Notice how David summed up his request to God. He acknowledged that he could do nothing on his own that could remove the penalty of sin, except to humble himself before God—with a meek and broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart (mind)—and simply ask for forgiveness!

“For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:16-17).

Many times, a person may not know how to go before God and ask for forgiveness. David’s example has shown us one very clear way.

Two men went up to the temple to pray

We see another example of coming before God in heartfelt repentance in the book of Luke.

“Also [Jesus] spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

“‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess”’” (Luke 18:9-12).

This man believed he had done all that he was required to do and more. He didn’t recognize the seriousness of his sins or his need for God’s mercy.

In contrast, notice the attitude of the tax collector in the parable:

“And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (verses 13-14).

Humility and, as David said, a broken and contrite spirit are necessary for us to seek God’s forgiveness (Psalms 34:18; 51:17). God is willing to wipe the slate clean—to mercifully justify those who approach Him this way. (See “Justification: How Can We Be Justified?”)

What shall we do?

Acts 2:36-41 describes a group of individuals on the Day of Pentecost (one of God’s annual festivals) who were listening to Peter. He explained the role of Jesus Christ in their lives and how they (because of their sins) were responsible for crucifying Him.

When they recognized their sins, they expressed godly sorrow—being cut deeply to their hearts. And so they asked the question, “What shall we do?”

Peter’s answer was clear: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

In the same way, our sins also led to Jesus’ death (Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3). Therefore, we, too, must acknowledge our sins and see the need to repent and be baptized.

Study more about this in our articles “Repentance From Dead Works” and “Baptism: Does God Want You to Be Baptized?”

Repentance

Repentance is one of the hardest things for us to do. But, if we are honestly seeking forgiveness, that’s where we have to begin.

The first step in repentance is confessing our sin before God and asking for His forgiveness. It should be heartfelt and genuine.

Study more in our articles “How to Repent,” “What Is Repentance?” and “Forgiveness: How Can We Be Forgiven?”

What about you?

We should appreciate God’s mercy and recognize that His goodness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). To receive the unmerited gracious gift of forgiveness, we must humbly confess our sins to Him with a deep desire to repent and change. Repentance is a process that we must go through, and it should be repeated every time we find that we have sinned (1 John 1:8-9).

What about you? Are you ready to go before God in prayer and ask for forgiveness?