Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Forgiveness : The Way to Happiness

The virtue of forgiveness ran through my ears three times in a row over the past weekend:
(1) At a Mandarin Fellowship group sharing on Friday, the leader quoted from a U.S. survey that one of the top three ways to gain happiness is to forgive. Another way is to be altruistic, i.e. having unselfish interest in the welfare of others. I don't quite remember the third way. It has something to do with being religious.

(2) At my Team of Love group sharing on Saturday, the air suddenly smelled apologetic. There were public apology for wrong attitudes, followed by hugs of forgiveness. I could literally 'hear' the release of built-up inner pressure through uttering of the three magic words "I am sorry".

(3) During the Sunday sermon, a visiting preacher quoted from Phil 4:19: "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Though the message was mission focused, it dawned on me that as we forgive one another in Christ Jesus, our heavenly Father is glorified AND He will richly meet all our needs, including the healing of our hurt emotion and lifting of low self-esteem.

My take home lesson : there is always healing joy through forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

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