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Forgive God? What does it mean?
”Forgive God”—a true story
Have you ever heard someone telling you that you need to ”forgive God”? What do people mean by this expression? Do we really need to forgive God? Is God making mistakes?
Several years ago I was blessed to minister to a man in a foreign country. His heart was broken as he came to receive prayer ministry. I could see that he was anxious and angry and that something bad happened in his life.
So, after opening in prayer and inviting the Spirit of God and God’s Name in our midst, we asked him what would he like Jesus to do in his life. Before I start praying I ask people about the number one burden in their life or what they sense the Lord wants to deal with in their life. After we encouraged him to open up to the Lord he began sharing his heart with us and with God.
Of course, I will not share his story details or his name, because I do not have his permission to do that. All I can say is that he went through some tough times together with his family when he realized one of his children was missing and the media was blaming him and his wife for whatever happened. He was probably as down as a person can be.
Forgiveness and forgive God
However, probably his deepest anger was against God and why He allowed such a thing to happen to his child and to his family. Of course, he had so many questions in his heart; questioning God’s existence and His love and care for them as a family. He was desperate. And he needed some answers. What would you have done in his place?
My next question is what would you have done in my place? How would you minister to a person and situation
Needless to say, after we have listened to the man’s story we had to share the tough truth. We told the man that if he wants to be free and be healed, he will have to, well, forgive. He will have to forgive his child for being disobedient, the media and the other people blaming him and his wife for the missing child. Moreover, he will have to forgive himself for whatever he thinks or for whatever he blames himself for. And he will have to forgive every and any person involved in this tragedy he feels anger against or thinks are guilty of something.
He was not willing in the beginning to forgive anyone. Especially there were several people he was not willing to forgive at all. I felt we were at a dead-end with him.
To”forgive God” is not what it looks like
We began praying and asked God’s wisdom for how to proceed in that specific situation. And while praying I sensed God prompting me to ask the man to forgive a few people who have not hurt him as much as others did. I asked him if he could try and forgive them. And to my (our) surprise he, for the first time, was willing to forgive.
Often, when we forgive it is good to start with the people who we sense we can forgive easily and then move towards the ones which are harder to forgive.
After he finished to forgive those people, I asked him to forgive the next category of people, those who had hurt him a little more. Again, he was willing to forgive. Then, we continued with the next group of people and so on until he managed to forgive everybody!
He couldn’t believe what he just did, because he thought he would never be able to forgive them. After he forgave all the people on his forgiveness list, we asked him to forgive himself—and he was willing to do that too.
However, I sensed that there was one more thing to do before he could be totally free. He had to ”forgive God”. Now, what did I mean by that?
The meaning of ’’forgive God’’
In our ministry session with this man, we saw that he believes that somehow all that happened in his life and all of the mess he was in, was God’s fault—more or less. He was tricked by the enemy in believing that God was a ’’bad God’’ who wanted to hurt him, just as the people around him had. And in his pain and
God is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds(Psalm 145:17, TLV). Moreover, God does not make mistakes or errors. God knows everything (1 John 3:20), He can do anything (Psalm 115:3), and He is everywhere (Psalm 139:7-12)!
Therefore, when I asked the man to ”forgive God” I had to explain to him what I meant. It’s not that God makes mistakes but that he believes or has the impression that God made a mistake. To ’’forgive God’’ means actually to repent and ask for God’s forgiveness because you believed He was wrong and did something bad to you. To ’’forgive God’’ means to renounce the idea that God is an evil and bad God when He is a loving Father to you. So, to ’’forgive God’’ is about you asking forgiveness and about renewing your mind according to His Word!
’’Forgive God’’ and experience freedom
The enemy keeps so many people in this bondage where they constantly blame God for everything wrong in their life. The painful truth is that often we are in a tough situation because of our own wrong and faulty choices. And the enemy of our soul is not wasting the opportunity to denigrate God in our eyes, because he wants us to be enemies of God, as he is.
God loves you and wants only the best for you. Maybe you think this is only a cheap cliché but actually this is the genuine truth. God cares about you and He is not happy when you go through hardships and painful situations. And my prayer for you is to know him as your Father—the greatest revelation of my life.
Needless to say, after the man in my story realized what he did, he was willing to ’’forgive God’’. He was shocked by his mistake and sin towards God and was able to repent and ask His forgiveness. And that was a special and amazing moment which ended up in tears and then joy.
Forgive God and repent
I don’t know your life or the storms through which you have been. However, I am sure life was not easy with you either and probably there are people you need to forgive or you might need to forgive yourself. But do not forget to search your heart and pray for the Holy Spirit to search your heart and show you if you need to ’’forgive God’’ too.
Blaming God can put a barrier in your relationship with Him and can hinder your walk with Him. Ask the Lord if there was a moment in your life when you blamed Him for something—small or big—and then repent. Only after repenting of this great sin you can experience full freedom in your life.
I know I had to repent of this sin when I blamed God for a few things in the past. I did not verbalize the words but in my mind and with my attitudes I blamed Him when He was not to blame, as God is perfect in all His ways.
Do not skip this step or postpone it. Talk to the Lord about yourself blaming Him and be honest because He already knows everything. Ask for His forgiveness and then spend time thanking Him. Do it in your own words.
My hope is that you understand now the expression forgive God. And do yourself a favor and read Dr. David Levy’s book about forgiveness and healing from a Jewish doctor’s perspective:
Do you agree?
Remember Isaiah 45:9 (ESV)
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’or ‘Your work has no handles’?
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I am a blogger, writer, minister, husband to Olguta, and most importantly, a child of God. I am also a certified Coach, Speaker, Trainer, and Teacher with The John Maxwell Team, and I am helping people reach their full potential.
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