Forgiveness

Dear Victorious,

How do you know if you've forgiven someone? I mean really forgiven them?

Intisar M. - Paramus, NJ

Dear Intisar,

When God forgives us, the Bible says that He "separates us from our sin --- as far as the east is from the west." (Psalm 103:12) What this means is that God no longer sees our sin at all. It's as if we never committed it. This is what perfect forgiveness does - it makes everything as if the offense being forgiven never even happened.

If you are still remembering, can still get worked up about it, ever bring it up, etc. - then your forgiveness is not yet complete. Sometimes it takes time to complete our forgiveness. Sometimes the wound we suffered was so deep that we aren't able to forgive on our own. In such cases, we may need to ask for God's help in order to accomplish the forgiveness that we know we want to offer (and is required of Christians).