Ever since she was a little girl, she dreamed about falling in love, buying a home, raising a family enjoying grandchildren and living happy ever after. But life gave her a sucker punch that she could never recover from.

When I met her, she was living out her life in a retirement home. Bitter, alone and just barely surviving. The man she loved, decided to fall in love with someone else and start a new family. She was left alone, raising several children on her own.

Even though almost 50 years had past, she was as bitter as she was the day he left. Her bitterness towards him made her into a person that no one wanted to be around. This isn’t the first story like this that I have heard. Maybe this is you. Whatever you went through, you just can’t let go.

Then, I shared with her the story Jesus shared about the unforgiving servant. The one who could not forgive. I focused on Matthew 18:34.

“And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers, until he should pay all that was due him.”

Matthew 18:34

Friends, that is what happens when we can’t forgive. We literally become tortured people. The person who hurt us walks around free and we are a prisoner to our own bitterness. A person who is able to forgive will always be a free person.

We can learn from others like this. Hopefully this verse will turn this lady around even in her last days. But how about you? Let’s not be like King Solomon at the end of his life who said, what in the world did I do with my life.

Jesus said, who the Son has set free, is free indeed. Live a life of forgiveness. Let go and let God….

I always live by this when I have been hurt. No matter how small I believe my sin is, it is the sin that nailed Jesus to the cross. If Jesus could forgive me, how can I not forgive someone else. Forgiveness is not just releasing the other person but releasing me.