I recently  came across this devotional by Greg Laurie:

     “When I committed my life to Jesus Christ there was an erosion of bitterness and anger, and the growth of a love I had not known before. Years of bitterness and anger that had been building up just began to dissolve.

     If we claim to be followers of Christ and harbor bitterness or hatred in our hearts toward someone, there is something very wrong.  John was very distinct when he wrote, ‘If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?’ (1 John 4:20, NLT). John was saying that, if we have hatred in our hearts toward fellow members of the body of Christ, fellow Christians, there is something wrong in our spiritual lives.

     Maybe someone has wronged or hurt you. Even so, God calls on you to love and forgive that person, not to avenge yourself. Here is why: that bitterness and hatred will do more harm to you than the person to whom you are directing it. It will eat you up inside. It will destroy your life. It will hinder your time of prayer with God. It will hinder your worship. It will, for all practical purposes, act as an obstacle in the relationship God wants to have with you.

     There is no room for hatred, bitterness or prejudice in the heart of a child of God. God wants our love to be honest and without hypocrisy.”

     I have a cartoon of two mountain climbers on the side of a near-vertical mountain wall.  They are both equipped with pickaxes and tethered together with a rope. The one on the bottom sinks his pickaxe into the mountain only to have a large part of it, the part he is hanging onto break off the mountain.  The cartoon shows him still hanging onto a six-foot boulder that has broken free.

     The man up top is yelling, “Let go of the rock!”  The very thing that the man was holding onto, which was his safety, has now become his liability. If he doesn’t let go, it will be his demise.  If he lets go of the boulder and allows the rope to hold him up, he will be OK. If he continues to hold onto the boulder, he will die. Worse yet, if he doesn’t let go, he will take his friend down with him.

     This is a picture of what unforgiveness looks like.  If we don’t forgive others, it leaves a negative impact on us and by holding onto it we take along our spouses, children and every relationship we have.

Note: I got this article from a daily devotional by Greg Laurie.

Click here for part 4 on this series on forgiveness.