How many times have we opened our mouths, only to later regret we’d said anything at all?
In Proverbs 21:23 we read that if we control our mouths and tongues, we will keep ourselves out of trouble.
Already this is hitting home with many of us. It might have been a private anguish told in confidence, only to learn that everyone soon knew. We may have revealed an important goal, only to have it mocked. Perhaps God gave a word to us, and no one understood. We were crushed, and that moment regularly comes back to haunt us. We only wish we could pull out a giant eraser and remove the moment from our lives.
However, we cannot undo what has been done, and we shoulder the baggage of that betrayal. No matter how much we achieve in life or how high we rise in social status, just scratch the surface, and we are back in that moment again, hurting as badly as before.
What is unforgivable to us? A private secret shared? Lies told? Emotional betrayal? Spousal abuse? Child abuse? Murder? Our siblings selling us into slavery then telling our parents we were killed by a wild animal?
We already recognize the story. It starts in Genesis 37. It’s about a boy who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. It’s about Joseph who rose to great power in Egypt, saving the land from seven years of famine.
Perhaps Joseph’s father, Jacob, wasn’t the best of parents, because his doted on his young son. However, Joseph was the child of his old age, and Jacob loved him more than all his brothers. In fact, he made it worse when he gave him a coat of many colors.
If that coat wasn’t enough to irk his older brothers, Joseph told of a dream he had where his brother’s sheaves bowed down to his. Yet later, he told of the sun and moon and eleven stars that bowed down to him.
His brothers were incensed. They plotted to kill him, but God intervened, and they sold him to a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead instead.
Sold into slavery! Joseph had been wronged so badly that there was no forgiveness. Or was there?
Eventually Joseph would rise to the highest office under the pharaoh, and he would save his brothers. But, could he forgive them?
In this series, we will look at seven confirmations that must be in place before we can truly say we have forgiven our abuser.
Just because God tells you something doesn’t mean you should tell everyone.
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