Talking to teens who are wallowing in pain, anxiety and hard knocks about forgiveness was a daunting task. I hope, pray and believe that God used me to speak to them because I remember being in their shoes.
Many of you may know my story, some of you may not but I too come from a broken home and had to walk through years and years of forgiveness. Truly, to forgive such deep pains, I needed Jesus and the empowerment of His Spirit.
I walked through my story with these teens and knew I was hitting some nerves with my story. God called me to forgive, he calls them to forgive and he calls you to forgive. Embedded into this post is my story, the same story I shared this weekend.
You'll notice it wasn't at the retreat I shared this but to my youth group when I was the Middle School pastor. Many of the teens that came were not from our church, so this was relevant for them as it was when I taught it to my middle schoolers.
Are there people you need to forgive? Will you ask God to empower you to forgive, or will you wallow in your bitterness, hoping to wound the person who hurt you more than they hurt you?
God calls us to forgive. It's healthier to forgive for us. It's better all around to forgive. So will you?
Marv Nelson - Forgiveness.mov from Marv Nelson on Vimeo.
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