Motives of Forgiveness

Motives are of the utmost concern of our Lord. He knows our hearts and the reasons why we do everything that we do. When is comes to motives of forgiveness, I am sure there are many reasons why people do or do not forgive others or themselves. I have walked this same road and I had many good motives and some bad motives for forgiveness. Everything that we do' as Christians should be motivated by our love for God, not out of pride, or notoriety, attention, or any other selfish motive. It should be motivated by our deep affection and love for God. Every day we should be loving God more, because I promise you every day you are in this world there is something new to learn about God and to expand your love for Him.

When we forgive, we glorify God, we honor God, we please God, and those should be our motives not only in forgiveness but in all things that we do. We should seek to honor God above everything else. He is the One that gives us the power to forgive, He is the One that gives us the strength to forgive, and He is the One that gives us the command to forgive. He would never command us to do anything that He would not also give us the power to do. When we are in situations where forgiveness is needed we need to communion with the Lord for His help, for His guidance, and line ourselves up with His Word. And I can already tell you that your flesh, and others in this world will not like it and they will not understand it. A good measure of knowing that you are in the will of God is that your flesh doesn't like it, because it is contrary to the will of God. Thats why Paul said he had to beat his flesh into submission, this is the war that all Christians are in, daily. Walking the worthy walk includes forgiveness, and includes asking God to help you and strengthen you. This is a daily, hourly, and minute by minute walk. Like exercise, the more you do it the stronger you become. Like Paul, we have thorns in our sides, that come in many different ways. The Lord will at times remove them, but sometimes He doesn't, because He is using that very thorn to exercise you in His ways. We should always be thankful for the thorns. We are new creations, God has given us a new heart, and we are empowered by His Spirit, please remember who you are in Christ.