The Beauty of Forgiveness

My first book for the Christian market (my 31st published book) was The Forgiving Hour (1999). The lessons I’d learned about forgiveness—mostly the hard way—were poured into my characters in that story. I consider that novel, perhaps more than any other I’ve written, to be proof of Romans 8:28.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Those hard lessons, those hard things, that happened in my life were worked together for good in The Forgiving Hour. God put them to use. I know this because over the past 25 years He has allowed me to pray for heartbroken women, both in person and in response to the letters and emails they have sent to me.

Earlier this week I listened to a video sermon about forgiveness. The pastor said that much of the secular world views the Christian God as a supreme who is angry and vengeful, who is just waiting to smash people who trip up (my paraphrase). But the truth is, the God of the Bible is abounding in love. He is gracious and compassionate. He is slow to anger. He is longing to forgive. All we need do is turn to Him in repentance.

Even followers of Jesus don’t always grasp the extent of God’s forgiveness. We sometimes think our iniquity (a premeditated choice), transgressions (willful disobedience), and sin (anything that misses the mark) have taken us too far to be forgiven or for us to be of use again. We’re like the prodigal son, willing to be just a servant in our father’s house because surely he can’t forgive us for what we’ve done. But our Heavenly Father runs to us and welcomes us home.

We live in such a broken world. Christians don’t get a pass on that. We don’t have to look any further than our neighborhoods, our towns/cities, our countries. It’s a mess out there. It’s a mess in here. Others hurt us. We hurt others. God forgives us, and He calls us to forgive.

I love to see forgiveness at work, and I love to read about it too.

What’s your favorite novel that shows the beauty of forgiveness? Please share. I’d love to know.

~robin