You have a point. Perhaps as we age and have racked up so much that we can not let go of, God simply provides us with an escape from our own judgment. I know that I beat myself for saying an unkind word, or even stepping in front of someone in a grocery line. So forgiving myself is probably my hardest task. To forgive others, sure why not even when they do not apologize or ask for forgiveness. However, if the insult is repeated and repeated, I look at them as working the devil's work and just trying to tempt me into committing the sin of lashing out at them. So, I distance myself from them. There are verses in the bible to speak of this. But, I will spare you.

Job's friends were his peers ideologically no less than socially; he belonged to their circle both in deed and in creed. A chasm opened between him and them only because of a disaster that Job alone knew to be undeserved. One may compare and contrast the midrashic word play, that has Job hearing God's answer out of a "hair" (which is a homonym of "storm" in Hebrew) from contemplation of a microcosm. The grand vista of nature opens before Job, and it reveals the working of God in a realm other than man's moral order.

Job responds to, and thus gets a response from, the numinous presence underlying the whole panorama; he hears God's voice in the storm. The fault in the moral order--the plane on which God and man interact--is subsumed under the totality of God's work, not all of which is reasonable. Senseless calamity loses some of its demoralizing effect when morale does not depend entirely on the comprehensibility of the phenomena but, rather, on the conviction that they are pervaded by the presence of God. As nature shows, this does not necessarily mean that they are sensible and intelligible.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Trusting means saying, "Here God. I turn this over to you." the implication of that action is you will cease worrying or thinking about wh**ever you turned over to God.


"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15)


Forgiveness means saying, "I forgive you for your trespass/offense against me." By forgiving, the implication is you will forget about the trespass/offense which occurred.

With the above as the premise, which is the harder of the two things; trusting/turning it loose or forgiving/forgetting?

I guess it's me, I forgive because I don't want to carry that burden. Along with that, if you don't carry the burden, why remember the incident? The only time I was really hurt, it took a while but that hurt is gone, and that hurt is what makes you remember the grievance that occurred.

To trust the Lord, yes naturally I trust Him. If you ask Him to heal a physical sore, after my initial request to heal it, then until it heals I will thank Him for doing so. I do that because that's the way I was taught - you speak it into reality. i.e. If I don't feel well, I will say I feel fine, because I know God wants me to feel well. I guess it's sort of a brain washing technique.

You're right, in my mind, about not carrying the burden. I guess I should have clarified more sharply earlier on that the "not forgetting" part (for me) occurs when I see a pattern start to evolve. We teach people how to treat us and if something egregious continues to repeat itself, then it is time to take stock. One can only turn the cheek so many times. However, my Amish friends believe that if something happens it is because God "allowed" it to happen, and since God allowed it, the t***sgression must be forgiven.

My question to you, and I ask this respectfully, if God doesn't allow something to be spoken into reality, if he answers your prayers another way in his wisdom, do you, when you realize that your prayer was answered, but not the way you had hoped, do you also say a prayer of thanks? I struggle with that one.

You know, I have learned to be "happy", however God answers my prayers. God will attend to my requests as he deems wise. I stayed mad with God for a long time because I would pray that this one situation would be resolved, that someone else would be changed. It felt as if God wasn't listening. I came to realize and it took "forever" (slow learning curve), that someone had...and that someone was me...and I was a better person for it. On the other hand, when I ask that God give me a sign, one way or another, as to what I should do, there are those times when all I can do is smile and say "thank you."

I should add though, that while I am having "character building experiences" there are those times that initially I do a little looking heavenward and say quietly what God already knows will be my words, not meant disrespectfully at all, but in frustration....those words being..."you know, God, you have a warped sense of humor...I only "wish" I knew what you were trying to tell me, what my mind refuses to hear, because I'm not liking this at all." Much, much later, the lesson will be like an epiphany. I just wish the learning curve were a little faster, but then, maybe that's part of God's strategy as well.