Forgiveness and Hope

There is a debilitating condition that is more widespread than some might think. It is a condition that can lead to alcoholism or drug use. It can result in child abuse and spouse abuse. It may lead to either obesity or anorexia and the chronic health problems that accompany them. It can ruin marriages, destroy homes and make the workplace a living nightmare. If left unchecked over the long term, it can even lead to suicide.

This devastating condition is hopelessness; and it is far too rampant in our community for us to neglect it.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is no more hopelessness here than in other communities. However, hopelessness is increasingly common throughout our entire culture, and we are not exempt from it here.

The point, however, is what can be done about it.

To grasp that, it’s important to understand how hopelessness arises. People who are hopeless generally have become convinced that their future contains no possibility for improving their situations or solving their problems.

When people feel that way, they may resort to angry and desperate measures. The end result is further unhappiness, and an ever-tightening spiral of hopeless despair.

The irony of the whole dilemma is that the cure for hopelessness is exceedingly simple and universally available. That cure is forgiveness.

Let me explain.

Hopelessness is a primary by-product of unforgiveness. This is because unforgiveness binds us to bad things (i.e. sins) in the past, and keeps us trapped by the pains and wounds those sins caused. Thus, unforgiveness makes us turn from the possibilities God offers for the future by keeping us preoccupied with past wounds and present problems.

Or, to put it another way, when you fail to forgive those who have wounded you, you give their sin power to keep drawing you back into the past and closing the door on God’s plans for your future. You end up dragging the past around with you everywhere you go, and it cripples your ability to pursue the promises of God with hope and expectation.

Forgiveness, by contrast, is God’s supernatural way of delivering us from these past sins. The word “forgive” in the New Testament is a translation of two different terms in the original language: one means “to release” and the other, “to send away.” Thus, when someone who believes that Jesus died to forgive sins takes a step of faith to forgive others, it simple means releasing that person’s sins to Jesus, allowing them to be sent away from one’s own heart and placed on the cross of Jesus.

The blessed result is this: when you are convinced that Jesus’ death was full payment for other people’s sins and you let go of their sins against you, you find that those sins have let go of you. Untrapped by the past, you are now free to enter a future determined by God’s promises rather than by someone’s sins.

And that, my friends, will give you hope.