(this is my article today in our local newspaper) When we bury emotional pain in our hearts, it remains until we forgive the one who hurt us. I would like you to picture a dungeon in the bottom of your heart. Out of the darkness you hear these pitiful cries.

In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus gave a parable about an unforgiving servant. You can read it for yourself. One day the master found that one of his servants owed him 10,000 talents.

He could not pay the debt and fell down before his master. He pleaded with him to have patience and he would repay it all. His master had compassion on him and forgave him the entire debt.

That forgiven servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii. In anger he laid hands on him and took him by the throat. The fellow servant begged him to be patient with him and he would repay him all.

The forgiven servant would not. He had him thrown into prison. When his master found out he confronted him. Matthew 18:33 says “Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?” 

Verse 34 says that the master turned him over to the torturers. Verse 35 is where we come in. It says, “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

We are commanded to forgive. Forgiveness is not an option if we want to walk in the heart freedom that Christ has called us to walk in.

Ephesians 4:32 says, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” 

Colossians 3:13 says, “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.”

The emotional pain that we bury continually seeps into our thought processes. It affects every aspect of our lives. We may think that we buried it. Like the example of the dungeon, our emotional pain is just as alive in our present as it was in our past. It continually pleads to be released.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Have you ever said things in anger that you wish you could have taken back?

Anger is often rooted in unforgiveness. The forgiven servant grabbed his fellow servant by the throat. He showed no compassion. 2 Peter 1:9 says that when we lack inward
grace, we have forgotten about our own forgiveness.

Peter wrote, “For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.” Our unforgiveness towards others hardens our heart.
 Hebrews 3:13 says that the deceitfulness of sin hardens our hearts. Considering our sinful thoughts and actions as inconsequential is self-deception. A person who is deceived does not recognize that they are trapped.

Walking in the freedom of forgiveness promotes health and wholeness. Our attitudes come from our thoughts. When we consider how much we have been forgiven through Jesus’ death, we will have an attitude of forgiveness.

Psalm 103:12 says of our sins, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” The east and west never meet. We are fully forgiven. God chooses to never bring our sins up to us again.

At salvation we are forgiven all sin. Our past, present, and future sins are all under the blood of Jesus. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

As we forgive those who hurt us, we offer the same forgiveness that we have received. That act of forgiveness means that we will choose to not bring up their past sins again. Not only to their face, but we will purpose to not dwell on it in our minds.

1 Corinthians 13:5 in the Amplified says of love, “…it takes no account of evil done to it (it pays no attention to a suffered wrong.”) If you have a mental dirty laundry list against another, then you have kept a record of wrongs which has hardened your heart.