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Recovery Christian Center Daily Meditation - 4/6/12 - Step 8 - Fear Impeding Our Forgiveness

"I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt all of you more than he hurt me. Most of you opposed him, and that was punishment enough. Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement. So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him." 2 Corinthians 2:5-8 NLT

Step 8; We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Many of us express fear at this step. We are afraid that when it is time to make them amends we will be rejected, condemned or in some other way treated harshly. However, we are forgetting that it's not time for the amends yet. We are merely asked to make a list and become willing. The opportunity to make amends will present itself later. We are also forgetting that God has already forgiven us. Jesus paid our price on the cross. He who knew no sin became sin for us. So we can approach the amends with confidence that God has already forgotten about it. The purpose of the amends is to help us clean up the wreckage of our past. We're getting better but we still need to acknowledge the harm we caused. This step not only addresses the harm but also begins to put a face on that harm. We didn't just lie we lied TO somebody. We just didn't steal we stole FROM somebody. Those people are owed amends and belong on our list. We can't let the fear of how they will perceive the amends to keep them off the list.

We also need not make a judgment call about putting someone on the list because they harmed us as well. The list is about the part we played and the harm we caused. When we look at the entirety of what God has forgiven us for it becomes hard to hold a resentment. Besides the resentment is only harmful to the one who holds it. Its time to let go and deal with the part we played. We can't let our fear of what might be keep us in bondage anymore.

Today on Good Friday it is time to take all of the pain we have caused and begin to nail it to the cross and make our list.