How to Overcome Unforgiveness!

Unforgiveness is the inability to completely forgive someone that hurt you, offended you, damaged you, disregarded you, and caused you pain so deep that you feel that you simply just cannot forgive them. Every one of us struggles with the best way to handle those kinds of situations where all you want to do is make that person pay no matter the cost! What we fail to fully realize is that when you are harboring those negative emotions like unforgiveness, bitterness, and animosity; what you are doing is harming yourself more than you anyone else.

One of the most dangerous things that unforgiveness can lead to is spiritual oppression. Matthew 18:34-35 depicts it perfectly when he states, “And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

Taking a deeper look into these passages of Scripture we can see that the Lord is giving every one of us a strong warning about unforgiveness. It is such an offense in God’s eyes that the repercussion is being handed over to the tormentors (demons). The devil and his demonic kingdom are fully aware of this spiritual law and you best believe they use it to the fullest extent.

When you become offended by something someone did, the enemy will take full advantage of the the situation by planting negative thoughts in your mind to bring to your remembrance what he or she did to you. Why? Demons know that if you form unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, resentment, or animosity in your heart it can give them legal access to create strongholds in your life.

We have to remember that they form their mischief by laws, Psalm 94:20 is clear, “Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, Have fellowship with You?” You holding on to an offense is not worth the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional consequences!

The problem is that it is easy to hold onto anger towards others when you have been wounded unjustly. You begin to ask yourself questions like:

• Was I not good enough?
• What did I do wrong?
• How could they harm me the way that they did?

When you love someone with all of your heart and they do something that damages you to your core, it hurts! Whether it’s your partner, family, or a close friend pain is pain. The issue is when you suppress strong unfavorable feelings and don’t let them go, you are hurting yourself more than anyone else.

Looking at the physical aspect of it, the inability to forgive has been linked to high blood pressure, lack of sleep, high stress levels, and apprehension. Mentally and emotionally it can produce adverse emotions like bitterness, anger, depression, uneasiness, and many other negative feelings. The Johns Hopkins Medicine article called Forgiveness: Your Health Depends on it goes into great detail on the risk factors unforgiveness creates regarding your health.

The spiritual implications are just as bad as the physical, mental, and emotional ones if not worse. The refusal to forgive will prevent you from receiving unforgiveness from your heavenly Father, Matthew 6:15. The inability to forgive hinders your prayers from being heard, Mark 11:25. There are many other repercussions to unforgiveness and I go into more depth on it in my articles, Spiritual Oppression: The Dangers of Open Doors to the Enemy-Part 2 and Spiritual Oppression: The Dangers of Open Doors to the Enemy-Part 3.

The good news is there are things that can help you get to a place where you can easily forgive others which in turn will help your overall wellbeing. Holding onto unforgiveness isn’t worth the risk of having long lasting effects to your mind, body, and spirit!