What will you choose: forgiveness or bitterness?

Greg Laurie writes at World Net Daily about

A study on forgiveness found that 75 percent of those surveyed believed that God forgave them for past mistakes and wrongdoing. But of those who were polled, only 52 percent said they had forgiven others. That is called a disconnect. On one hand there are a lot of people saying, “God has forgiven me,” but on the other hand they are saying, “I haven’t forgiven other people.”

Of course, we are living in a culture that doesn’t like forgiveness. When was the last time you saw a movie that exalted forgiveness? I can’t think of many. But I can think of a lot that deal with payback and vengeance. We live in a culture that believes in the old adage, “Don’t get mad, get even.” It is the exaltation of vengeance and violence everywhere you look.

You are never more like God than when you forgive. Jesus modeled this so beautifully when he hung on the cross. The first statement he made was, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34 NKJV). From the cross, he was forgiving the very men who had driven the spikes through his hands, the very men who were standing at the foot of the cross, mocking and jeering at him.