Why Forgive?
Why you must forgive -
and how you can let go even of the oldest and deepest hurts!
Jesus said that if you don't forgive others, God won't forgive you - and yet forgiveness is one of the hardest Christian virtues to practice. Many simply ignore it.
Why Forgive? shows you why forgiveness is crucial to your spiritual and emotional happiness - and how you can come to forgive even the most grievous wrongs. These pages are full of real-life stories of people who learned how to forgive - often after being filled with bitterness and anger for years. These stories will inspire you to search your own life for hidden bitterness and to redouble your efforts to obey our Lord's command to forgive.
Written with painstaking honesty by the noted Protestant author Johann Christpoh Arnold, Why Forgive? contains a powerful message for all Christians - and for everyone who longs to be free from the shackles of anger and self-pity that keep them brooding over long-past events.
Although you may sometimes disagree with the author about just which deeds need forgiveness - and you may be surprised at some of the folks quoted in the book - nonetheless the wisdom in it about the nature of forgiveness and its role in our lives remains not only sound, but essential. These pages will reawaken your gratitude to God for His mercy - and fire you with new enthusiasm to share that mercy with others, no matter how they may have hurt you. These real-life stories of forgiveness give you beautiful examples of how to forgive:
- Josef: a Holocaust survivor, found relief for his lifelong bitterness only in Jesus' healing grace
- Gordon: his daughter killed by a terrorist bomb, he refused revenge, saying, "It's all part of a greater plan...and we shall meet again"
- Roberto: his skull cracked by corrupt police, he struggled to forgive for thirty years, concluding, "I realise that we cannot be fully human if we have hatred within us"
- Chris: shot in the head and left for dead, he survived - and eventually sought out and befriended his ill and dying attacker
- Kelly: jilted ten days before her wedding, she never married - but found unexpected freedom and joy in the single life
- Carol: after her husband confessed to adultery, she was hurt and angry - but ten months later, they moved back in together and publicly reaffirmed their marriage
- Jon and Gretchen: with their baby suffering from severe birth defects, they questioned God's love - until they found peace in acceptance
And many more who will inspire you with their courage to forgive!
Johann Christoph Arnold 176 pages hardback
Other titles by Johann Christoph Arnold include Endangered
