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ONE SIN which holds a person’s heart and affects its correct functioning is unforgiveness, People hold unforgiveness in their hearts when close friends, spouses, mates, colleagues hurt or offend them.
Unforgiveness causes anger, resentment, hatred or bitterness in the heart. This causes depression, anxiety and stress which rob people of joy and happiness.
The only ‘medicine’ Jesus Christ prescribes for His disciples to administer for their healing is forgiveness. Forgiveness is matchlessly a free, powerful spiritual ‘medicine’ that heals depression, anxiety and other health conditions.
Even at a time when He hang on the Cross, Christ Jesus saw the need to free His spirit of offense and hurt. Thus, He prayed, saying “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23: 34).
Jesus understands that forgiveness frees our hearts from being put in bondage which is necessary for promoting health and accomplishing divine assignments.
Now, what does it mean to forgive? To forgive is to stop being angry at someone who has hurt or offended you. It means letting go of bitterness, resentment, anger, rage or revenge. To forgive is to remove guilt and restore relationship.
Thus, to maintain a free heart or spirit, it is only advisable that a Christian forgives those who offend them or repents of the offenses they cause others and gladly participate in the forgiving and healing process.
As indicated earlier, forgiveness is a great medicine; it tastes like a bitter pill when applying it, but it is best. People who forgive heal themselves as forgiveness improves mental health, free our hearts of anxiety, stress, depression and frustration that robs us of sound sleep and logical thinking.
By forgiveness, we normalize our blood pressure, improve our immune system, self-esteem and restore relationships.
Consequently, the Physician of physicians, Jesus Christ, teaches us to be willing and ever ready to forgive those who offend us no matter the gravity of the offend caused. We must forgive 77 times seven.
This means we should not dare hold grudges in our hearts against anyone. This places on us the need to follow peace with all men and women in churches, politics, marriages, businesses, schools and communities; we should be peacemakers and not troublemakers.
To be able to forgive, we must realize how each one of us is prone to making mistakes or offending ourselves, and how much we also need to be forgiven. Now, Scriptures do not instruct us to refrain from repaying evil for evil for nothing; God knows best. Vengeance is His. God pays everyone according to their deeds.
Therefore, let us forgive, and leave the punishment to God. If Joseph could forgive his brothers who put him in a pit, later sold him into slavery and went home to tell a lie to their father Jacob that his last son whom he loved most had been killed by a beast, then, we also can forgive those who offend, hurt and plot evil against us.
Forgiveness indeed, is a great medicine that heals us of stress, depression and other immune and psychological disorders.
By James Quansah
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James Quansah is the Executive Director of Christ-Conscious Leadership Centre (CLC) and lead Pastor of End-Time Christ’s Commissioners (ECC), Kumasi, Ghana. James is also a journalist by profession. He is married with four children.
