Grace, Forgiveness & other things like 'em...

So...

I've been thinking about this grace & forgiveness thing...

Biblical ideals we are all meant to embrace...not only embrace - but we will have to personally deal with in detrimental ways if we don't - according to the Bible.

I am/was someone who needed both grace & forgiveness in radical ways - not like we all don't. It's just that we feel better thinking someone else is a worse sinner than ourselves.  But either way, I needed (& need) both nonetheless.

Let me say, I feel like I'm a pretty good grace giver & forgiver.  Overall.  Not that I don't struggle with forgiving certain people...events...things said...sins...etc...but, overall I feel like I do ok with both...but I'm really struggling with what it means when I say I've forgiven someone.

What's that mean, to say I forgive?

Here's where I am on it.

To say to myself - or even to another person, other than the one I've forgiven, "that I forgive them"...what's that mean?  What's been accomplished?

Can grace or forgiveness truly live in a vacuum?  Can it really be something that's ONLY "said".  As if that completes the deal.  Is forgiveness really just a statement?  Is grace just an idea of good rather than harm?  

Do you see the flaw?  

Here's the rub for me.

It's a whole lot easier to say it (though getting to that point might take a lot of time & be extremely difficult) than it is to show it.  To show grace or offer forgiveness is a completely different story.  

IMO, forgiveness & grace are only about the forgiven, when EXPRESSED to them...or am I wrong?  Does it need expressed at all?  Is it about the forgiver or the forgiven...or both?

To express it means - I not only no longer try to harm them, I also no longer "hold onto things" inside...I wish for good...I pray for them...AND, if it's ever the right thing to do, I tell them "I forgive you"...Not in some "I'm doing you a real favor here" kind of way...in a real Jesus Christ kind of way that feels right in both the forgiver & the forgiven.  It's the whole "actions speak louder than words" thing.

Biblically, to forgive means to release someone of a debt...to let them go free of what you think they owe you...Albeit - they may really owe you.  To forgive means you choose to let them go free from that debt.

If I carry around - anger...bitterness...even something just short of "hatred" (again because I'm not allowed to hate - the Bible tells me so)...then how can I say I've forgiven?  Is there more to it or not?  I'm not sure.

The world is full of guilty...hurting people...sinners.

To let them know - we not only talk the talk - but walk the walk can literally change their life & their world.

Talk is cheap...AND at times meaningless.  I'm trying to know what to do or not do with "forgiveness".

People of the Second Chance.

b