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Refusing to forgive and forget leads to other tragedies, like monuments of spite. How many churches split (often over nitpicking issues), then spin off in another direction, fractured, splintered, and blindly opinionated?

There is enough in the past few days' worth of devotionals to keep us thinking (and forgiving) for weeks. But there are a couple of specific applications that need to be considered.

We are to forgive as we have been forgiven! Release the poison of all that bitterness...let it gush out before God, and declare the sincere desire to be free.

Because we have been the recipients of maximum mercy, who are we to suddenly demand justice from others? The compassion that God demonstrates on our behalf calls for us to do the same toward others. 

The important thing for each of us to remember is that you are responsible for you, and I am responsible for me (Romans 12:18). With the right motive, in the right spirit, at the right time, out of obedience to God, we are to humble ourselves and attempt to make things right. God will honour our efforts.

Matthew 5:23-24 describes in a nutshell the correct response and procedure to follow when we have been in the wrong and have offended someone.

When wrong has been done against another person, there are only two possibilities of blame. But whether we are responsible for the offence or we are the recipients of it, the first move is always ours.

It's important to understand that we can never forgive others, horizontally, if not for what Christ has already done for us, vertically.

How can this be? Where's God in all of this? I genuinely want to serve Him. I prayed for a ministry. I was willing to serve Him anywhere, doing anything...and this is the thanks I get!

Let me encourage you, in spite of the high cost of giving and the small number of servant-models you may see around you, to determine to be different. God tells us He "loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7), and He promises us that the one "who is generous will be blessed" (Proverbs 22:9). Let's believe Him!