We have all heard messages from Brian, our pastor, many times about repenting and forgiving. You’d think I would have this down by now. But God reminded me of a situation I thought was over and done and in the past that I needed to ask forgiveness for. Luke 6:37 says, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven”.
There was a co-worker at my former job that I felt made way too many mistakes consistently, therefore, compromising my job’s accuracy of reporting. This went on for years. I became so frustrated that I would purposely set out to look for her mistakes, partly to keep down as much inaccuracy as possible, and partly to show how much she messed up. This created tension between us. I got to the point that I hated going to my job. I would pray about my job situation, although I wasn’t consistent about it.
Then I finally decided to quit that job to find another about same time my mom found out her cancer had spread. I felt God telling me I needed to stay home to help my mom.
For the last year and half, I’ve had many dreams about my former place of employment and the gals that worked there. Some dreams were just weird and made no sense. Other dreams were unpleasant, and now looking back, I know it was God speaking to me through the dream.
About 3 weeks ago I had another dream about my co-worker. I dreamed that I went to visit someone in the hospital and I discovered that my former co-worker was also there. I went to see her and tried to hug her, but she kindly pushed me away as she was very sore from having a mastectomy from cancer. I knew there was a message in this dream but didn’t understand yet until about 1 ½ weeks later. As I was praying before bed, God put that dream on my mind and convicted me that I needed to ask her for forgiveness for my behavior while we worked together. God had convicted me of this before but I ignored it. I finally got it this time. I wrote her an email explaining that my behavior toward her was wrong and asked for her forgiveness, explaining about the dreams and how God convicted me. She wrote back the very next morning saying she had forgiven me and all was forgotten a long time ago. The joy and relief I felt was overwhelming.
It is just as important to ask for forgiveness as it is to forgive others. II Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death”.
We all need to recognize when we need to ask for forgiveness and to forgive others.
Vicki Stiles
Thanks for sharing that Vicki!