Category: Devotionals

Short, daily reflections designed to encourage your faith, strengthen your walk with Christ, and keep your heart focused on God’s Word.

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What Forgiveness Is Not

Key Scripture

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”

— Romans 12:19 (ESV)

Devotional Reflection

Sometimes the greatest obstacle to forgiveness is not unwillingness.

It is misunderstanding.

Many people sincerely want to obey God, yet hesitate because they believe forgiveness requires something that Scripture never commands. They fear that if they forgive, they will invalidate their pain, excuse wrongdoing, or place themselves in harm’s way again.

Perhaps that is why it is just as important to understand what forgiveness is not as it is to understand what forgiveness is.

Forgiveness is not pretending that nothing happened.

God never asks you to deny reality.

If you were wounded, then you were wounded. If trust was broken, then trust was broken. If injustice occurred, God does not expect you to rewrite the story and call it acceptable.

Forgiveness tells the truth.

It says:

  • “What happened mattered.”
  • “The pain was real.”
  • “The offense had consequences.”
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What Forgiveness Really Means

Key Scripture

“Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” — Colossians 3:13 (ESV)

Devotional Reflection

When you hear the word forgiveness, what comes to mind?

For some, it means forgetting the offense and moving on as if nothing happened.

For others, it means pretending they are no longer hurt.

Some believe forgiveness means excusing harmful behavior or immediately restoring a broken relationship.

Others fear that forgiving someone means allowing that person to “get away with it.”

No wonder forgiveness feels impossible.

Many of us have been trying to do something God never asked us to do.

That is why understanding what forgiveness really means is so important.

In Colossians 3:13, Paul writes:
“Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

Notice that Paul assumes something about life:

People will hurt one another.

He speaks of complaints because relationships involve imperfect people. In a broken world, misunderstandings happen. Words wound. Trust is broken. Expectations are disappointed. The need for forgiveness is not the exception to human relationships—it is part of living among people who, like us, are flawed and fallen.

But Paul also points us to the pattern of forgiveness:

“As the Lord has forgiven you…”

Before forgiveness is something we give, it is something we receive.

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Why Is Forgiveness So Hard?

Key Scripture

“Then Peter came up and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” — Matthew 18:21–22 (ESV)

Devotional Reflection

If forgiveness were easy, you probably would not be reading this devotional.

Most of us do not struggle to forgive small inconveniences. We can overlook a forgotten errand, an insensitive comment, or a moment of impatience. But some wounds go much deeper. They involve betrayal, rejection, humiliation, abandonment, broken trust, or years of disappointment. The deeper the wound, the harder forgiveness feels.

Perhaps you have asked yourself questions like these:

  • Why should I forgive someone who never apologized?
  • Why should I release someone who caused so much pain?
  • What if forgiving them means they “get away with it”?
  • What if I try to forgive and still hurt afterward?

These are not foolish questions. They are honest ones.

Even Peter struggled with the limits of forgiveness. When he asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who repeatedly sinned against him, Peter thought he was being generous. The common expectation of his day was far less. Offering forgiveness seven times seemed more than reasonable.

But Jesus answered in a way that challenged Peter’s heart.

“I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Jesus was not giving Peter a number to keep count of offenses. He was revealing that forgiveness is not about maintaining a ledger. It is about cultivating a heart shaped by the mercy of God.

Yet this teaching raises another question:

Why is forgiveness so hard?

Because forgiveness costs something.

When we have been hurt, something within us cries out for justice. We want the wrong acknowledged. We want the pain understood. We want fairness restored. Deep down, we want assurance that what happened mattered.

And it did matter.

Forgiveness does not deny that reality.

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