Forgiving What You Can’t Forget Online Bible Study Week Six — This Isn't Easy, But It Is Good

We treat people from the overflow of our thought life. ~ Lysa

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. — 2 Timothy 2:15

Hi, friends! Here we are already in our final teaching week! I’m not ready. I’m not done. And, don’t worry, we’ve heard that you aren’t either which is why we’ve added another week of time to this study so we all have plenty of time with the videos to soak it all in and study more.

This week we’re talking about being a forgiveness ambassador… I feel like barely a forgiveness apprentice, but I’m choosing it. Every day. I want this for me and my family.

I’ve seen what being resentful and quarrelsome can do. I’ve experienced the cost of hatred and the far-flung consequences of rage and venom. I want to continue learning how to argue well, to be a student of healthy conflict and a scholar of

In the last few years my eldest daughter and I, who deeply love each other and yet are one another’s opposite in many ways, have learned how to argue beautifully, work through old hurts, cooperate and be teammates, and forgive quickly and freely. We took a class on conflict together. We dove into our enneagrams which was key. In fact, now, we don’t really fight much. It’s a different world. Forgiveness isn’t an option. It’s an imperative.

Gosh, I want this in the rest of my life! Don’t you? We can be ambassadors for forgiveness! With the Lord, we can work for wholeness and freedom from the harm of bitterness.

We can’t control what people do to us, but we can control how we react to these situations.

Just this week I felt totally assaulted by another repeated unfair accusation and sat reeling in the bathroom begging God to give me His perspective and His wisdom. I know that if I don’t give it to Him immediately, I will spin and get stuck there spinning.

For that reason, I’m thankful for the bootcamp of suffering God has allowed me to endure because it’s given me the spiritual muscles to know what to do: seek Him, ask for wisdom, worship, remember who Jesus is and what He’s done for me, keep the lens of love… so many spiritual tools the Lord has made available to us!

I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess. ~ Martin Luther

A lot of our life is up to us. What happens to us isn’t always up to us, but what we do with it is. Who we choose to be in Christ is. Who we choose to forgive and to let go is.

Lysa pressed into us this week the challenge to see people as Jesus sees them. When we’re under assault, this is so hard but vital for us as believers! We don’t fight against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12), but against powers and the spiritual forces of evil that would have us punching each other out instead of working it out in love and compassion. Even if it is one-sided. When we see people as the beloved of God, it’s a game-changer! It’s hard to hate and rage against someone Jesus cherishes.

I wonder if Jesus is asking us to stop trying to get from others what they can’t or won’t give us and hand that debt, that hurt, that need over to Him to take care of in ways only He can. ~ Lysa

I don’t have to seek out the settlement of every debt. Jesus is way more fair than I am because His perspective is holy and it is complete. It doesn’t have to be fair in my eyes. That’s a new perspective for me.

I want to give it all Jesus. How about you?

This is a good thing, friends.

Week Six Statement:

We forgive people from the overflow of what we really believe to be true about Christ.

This week in your study:

1. Then, watch the video for session six of Forgiving What You Can’t Forget on our study home and take notes in your study guide on pages 144-152 and stick around to go through the questions afterward!
2. Grab your Bible and enjoy your personal study this week on pages 153-177.
3. Join the conversations about this week’s teaching and get to know our community in our private Facebook group.

Scriptures this Week

2 Timothy 2:15-16
2 Timothy 2:22-24
Philemon 1:8-9a
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Philemon 1:18-19
Philemon 1:15-16a

Prayer for the Week

Jesus, we love You! We worship You. We praise You. We thank You. So much is still yet to be done in our hearts. Help us to continue in the process with You of dredging where there is still darkness and bitterness. Shine your light on spaces we’ve ignored and hidden. Help us to release to You what we’ve held onto. We don’t want to be burdened any longer. We want to be ambassadors of You, ambassadors of forgiveness. Free us into that new grace, Lord. We love You. Amen.