Holding Grudges

   Have you ever made a promise you didn't keep? Did anyone ever break a promise to you? It doesn't matter if it is a small promise or a big one, when a promise is broken so is trust. Many times people remember when someone does not keep a promise. But as Christians what are we called to do?

   We are called to forgive those who wrong us. But many times we have a grudge against the person who broke the promise. Sometimes we try to forget those broken promises but we keep it in the back of our mind what that person did.
   When we hold grudges like that it is like a filing cabinet. Way back, at my church, a little skit was put on. An old lady came walking down the aisle with a huge filing cabinet. She interacted with the pastor and we found out that this lady had kept a record of everyone who ever wronged her. She kept holding grudges against those people because she didn't want to get burned.
   Imagine if you were to keep a record of all the wrongs anyone has committed against you. How big would your filing cabinet be? I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to carry that cabinet around. In fact, carrying that around doesn't do any good. It doesn't keep those who wronged us in chains, it just keeps us in chains. We are the one who carries around the anger, resentment, and hate. Meanwhile that person who wronged us may not even know what he did.
   Instead of having a huge filing cabinet what we need to have just one page in a file folder that says: Jesus' love paid it all. And has the words of Ephesians 4:31-31.
   So do you carry around a filing cabinet? What can you do to get rid of those grudges? Will you choose to remember that all is forgiven in Jesus?

   Mark 11:25, Ephesians 4:32, Matthew 18:21-22
   Image from here.