It was one rainy night 16 years ago when I received an overseas call from my brother who was in the Middle East telling me of a very sensitive issue involving me with my in-laws. That issue made my world broke and started the fire between me and my in-laws.
Nights of pains and hurts became weeks, months and years. I saw myself nursing the pain caused by people who seem to not know God; the hurts that eventually led to a deeper level of anger that affected my respect and relationship with my husband.
Years of being in this situation became normal to me. I found it a part of my 'normal' life, sharing with people as many as I can remember, boasting about the anger that I was holding on for years.
But God is truly good, He made me 'suffer' with the pain making me tired of it. He made me tired of holding on to that pain. I prayed, I asked Him to forgive me for not forgiving my in-laws. I asked God to teach me to forgive them even though they do not ask for my forgiveness. Above all, I asked God to call me and give me the courage to pray for them whenever I can all the days of my life until miracle happens.
God answers in different ways. One of which is wait. He made me wait for years, let me experience being rejected as I made my way to reach out to the very culprit of what happened. The culprit made me feel I was the real one to be blamed. I was devastated.
God teaches us to surrender. As I felt hopeless with the situation, it was then that I realized to stop reaching out, but still never lose my hope and surrender them to God. I stopped trying to prove myself that I never wronged them, I prayed and let God do the rest. Then I was at peace.
God answers in His perfect time and in His own ways. The primary person involved finally reached out to me. I was at first nervous to talk to her and was about to ignore. But God impressed in my heart to pray. I asked God that if this is from Him, He will give me the courage to talk to that person and have everything settled. If not, He will tell me otherwise.
God is the God of the impossible. He made the person think of me and made her way out to reach out to me. She even used this Pandemic to tell me that life is short and that we should forget what happened in the past. There was no apology asked but I believe she does not have that courage to do so - reaching out to me probably is her best way to ask for forgiveness.
Colossians 3:13 says "Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
With the forgiveness the LORD has granted me, who am I not to forgive?
I praise God!
