Torturing Ourselves; Every Single Day

Photo Credit: Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash

It was supposed to just be a simple prayer. She wanted healing; and so the new prayer novices were going through their notes and praying. But instead of finding peace - she started ‘shrieking’. They prayed harder; she shrieked louder. Finally, a priest ran over and asked what was wrong. “The pain, the PAIN is getting WORSE!” she screamed. So the priest prayed. “OWWW!” she screamed louder - “Now it’s moving!”

Well this was easy. In the spiritual world, once you have a pain start moving around in a body - you realize it is not a physical source; but a demon. But also in the spiritual world; we know how to handle that, because “once you spot em; you got em.” The priest simply commanded the demon to leave.

Instead the pain got even worse.

In the midst of the bedlam of screaming and panic; the priest realized that there was more to this problem. “Is there anyone you need to forgive” he ventured?

“My brother”, she spit out, “what he did was HORRIBLE!”

The priest simply responded: “well, you can’t get relief until you forgive him. Are you willing to do that?”

“Yes!” she replied in mounting hysteria. Repeating the words of the priest, she said, “In the name of Jesus, I forgive my brother!”

And then - suddenly, instantly - the pain left. There was immediate silence, the screaming abruptly ended.

And yet another lesson on ‘unforgiveness’ was born!

Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.  That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants.  When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.  Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.  At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’  Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.

When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’  Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’  But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt.

Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair.  His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.  Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’  Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.  So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.” Matt. 18: 22-35

Have you ever actually listened to the words of Jesus?

The Law of the Christian life is FORGIVENESS. Jesus went to the Cross, was tortured and killed for each one of us. All he asks of us is that we remember that, every time we are tempted to judge another with anger, contempt or criticism. It’s kind of like a mugger judging a burglar - they each decided that their own wants were more important than another’s; they just differed in how they went about getting them met. So how can anyone judge another person - they are both guilty. As are we.

Last I checked, there are NO perfect people in the world. There WAS one once, but as we know - we killed Him.

So when we decide, however, that we can get angry at someone else because we feel they ‘wronged’ us - even when they have; we are forgetting that we are a sinner also. Just as we hoped God would have mercy on our sins; we need to let Him have a go at all those who have sinned against us. If not, then based on what Jesus himself told us - we are giving the enemy (i.e. satan and his demons) permission to ‘torture’ us. And they are more than happy to do just that.

Here’s another verse for you; if you really want to shake yourself up:

“Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun set on your anger, and do not leave room for the devil.” -Ephesians 4:26

Wait, do you mean that we must forgive Each And Every Day??!!!!!

Well, ummmm, yes.

The reason is that often, by tomorrow, we’ve forgotten. Especially in today’s world of ‘offense’.

The enemy has access to torture us, if we’re walking in unforgiveness and a ‘spirit of offense’. Also known as a ‘mindset of offense’, this is the deception that because of your wounds you have a “right” to live in anger toward a person. Whether for those who cut you off in traffic; or for those ‘groups’ who enslaved your ancestors; or for those groups who are ‘destroying the world’ with the politics, lifestyle, viewpoint (fill in the blank) that you disagree with - we somehow feel that we have the right to hold them in contempt, anger, ridicule, sarcasm - and whatever other means we have to denigrate them. In fact, Christians can often be among the worse offenders here; because we just get so angry at the ‘godlessness’ in our world today! ‘Those people’ are just offending God; and hence, they need to be outside of His love and mercy… Just so long as we are INSIDE it, I guess. Yet, each and every day that we engage in this behavior and thought process, we are going to bed and ‘leaving room for the devil’. In other words, we invite the enemy into our lives to, well, torture us.

Ever wonder why things are just not quite right in your world? Ever wonder why you just don’t ever feel much joy? Well, how often are you living in a state of ’offense’?

So what do we do? Well fortunately, we have someone who can always help us remember who we need to forgive - if we ask. And then when that ‘someone’; aka the Holy Spirit; points them out to us; all we need do is say “In the name of Jesus, I forgive _____ for doing/saying _______” And say it out loud - cause demons can’t read your mind. They have to hear it.

Those simple words erase any claims our enemy may have against us - and set us FREE. Free from those who have injured / harmed / or offended us; and free from our enemy who is using that unforgiveness to keep us in bondage.

Once you do, you will return rejoicing just as the 72 disciples did; saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”