Lemon Bars

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things that my Mom ever made were lemon bars. I remember coming home from school and seeing them on the table and devouring as many as she would let me. The one thing that always confused me was that there was lemon in the name, and yet they tasted so sweet. Looking back, it kinda makes me laugh because for whatever reason, I never once thought anything about lemonade. 

One day as I was thinking about hurts and forgiveness, those lemon bars came to mind and I couldn’t help but think how similar forgiveness can seem to be. Now you may be asking, what in the world does forgiveness have to do with a pastry? Well, for me, I sometimes struggle with forgiveness because it can at times feel bitter or sour, if you will. Now I do know that I always should forgive, and I eventually do, but it always seems to take me way too long to realize how freeing it actually is. I’m reminded of the old saying: “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” Now I know I’m not the only person that struggles with this, so I figured we could look at what the Bible says about forgiveness and how to deal with it. 

Now obviously, there are a ton of verses we could look at, but I landed on Colossians 3:12-13, which says: Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

So the first thing I noticed when looking at these verses was the part that says put on which in the Greek is the word enduō and means to dress yourself. As followers of Christ, we are to clothe ourselves with mercies and kindness toward each other no matter the hurt. Then not only are we to put on mercies for each other, it says that we are to bear with one another, which comes from the Greek word anechō and means to endure or put up with. Now I don’t even like to put up with myself most of the time, so how am I supposed to be able to do all of this with other people? Well, we have our answer, and it comes at the end of verse 13, which says, just as the Lord forgave you. See when Jesus was on that cross dying my death and taking my punishment, He showed me mercy and grace that I could never earn or deserve and showed the perfect example of how I am to treat those who hurt me. Without knowing Jesus, we could never forgive because we would never know what forgiveness is supposed to look like. However, all too often, we still act as if we have an option whether to forgive instead of an obligation because of how much WE OURSELVES have already been forgiven. Because of this we have to keep going back to the cross to see Gods grace and mercy that was given to us. 

 

Now please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying that for every situation or every hurt we just need to move on and muster through like everything is fine because that’s not forgiveness. Forgiveness also doesn’t mean that you and that person will be reconciled back to each other because that may not be possible or even safe. What Forgiveness does mean is giving up our right to get even or hold a grudge and not allowing that hurt or pain to have any control over us any longer. Then we have to give all of it to God and allow Him to deal with it as only He can. 

So today, if you have some hurt or pain and you feel as though you haven’t been able to forgive, ask God to show you how to put on humility and let go of that pain. We have to also know that we will never be able to change the other person or the hurt, but we can allow God to change OUR heart. Be willing to surrender all of your pain and you will find that the thing you thought couldn’t be good will be one of the best things ever.