Breaking Free of Unforgiveness

Are you stuck, unable to move forward in your life or relationships? Do you replay conversations in your head and burn with anger or frustration towards the one who hurt you? Does the thought of that person, the past, or your present pain rob you of hope?

Unforgiveness looks like this.

All Healing Hearts leaders have been where you are, and we want you to know that Jesus understands your pain and offers freedom.

The Problem with Staying Stuck

When you’re stuck in unforgiveness, you feel tormented, trapped, and alone. The pain caused by others seems to build, causing your heart to fill with anger and bitterness, which inevitably overflows through your spoken words onto others caught in the crossfire, damaging those relationships. You seem to perceive words or looks from others as judgment or an assault on your identity resulting in further suffocating pain.

The world will offer plenty of advice on how to become unstuck, but does it truly heal your heart or help guide you for the next time you’re wronged?

Unforgiveness is like a sliver that wiggles itself deep inside and eventually festers like an infection.

“In order to get rid of the true source of pain, the splinter must come out. God’s healing for us is somewhat like this. The pain from your sin, or the pain from another person’s sin may have been festering in your heart for quite some time, being ignored.” —Sue Liljenberg in The Hem of His Garment (Revised Edition, pp. VIII-IX, 2020), Healing Hearts Ministries International

You can experience true healing and learn to handle hurtful situations through the power of Jesus! Will you allow the great Physician to do the necessary surgery to heal the pain in your heart?

The Litmus Test of Healing

Think of a time you were wronged, victimized, or hurt by someone you trusted or who was supposed to love you. Maybe a parent, close friend, spouse, relative, or stranger violated you, slandered you, or preyed on you.

Does the mere mention of this person’s name or even their presence around you cause a knot to swell in your stomach? Do feelings of anger, irritation, or bitterness toward the offender still arise when you think of him or her?

Perhaps you believe you have been able to truly forgive. Let me ask you. Are you able to share how the Lord has helped you through your pain as a way of offering encouragement to others who have also been hurt?

If the answer is no, maybe there is more work to be done in your heart. This kind of healing can only be done by Jesus — the one and only true Healer. For healing to happen, you must allow Him into the areas of your life you’ve kept guarded like a fortress.

All Healing Hearts leaders have been where you are, and can help guide you through the pain  and bring you to the cross.

How to Become Unstuck

Healing Hearts is a ministry offering Bible studies led by trained counsellors who will support you in a safe, grace-filled setting. Our counsellors are former clients who have completed the study and can empathize with the same or similar hurts and trauma you have experienced.

Through the ministry of Healing Hearts and the work of the Holy Spirit, the walls around the fortress of your heart will be taken down until all that remains is the cornerstone — Jesus Christ!

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Ephesians 2:19-22 NIV).”

Will it be easy? No!

Will it be worth it to experience freedom in forgiveness? Yes!

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners (Isaiah 61:1, NIV).”

There is no magic formula to experience the true freedom of forgiveness. There is only one way to achieve this, and it is through Jesus Christ.

So, my friend, are you tired of trying and failing by other means to heal from the pain of your past? Come join us!

For more information about Healing Hearts, contact Lee-Ann Chisholm at lee-ann@healinghearts.org.