<\/p>\n
At some point, we all face the sting of broken relationships. Whether it\u2019s because of betrayal, misunderstanding, or neglect, the pain can linger and affect other areas of our lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remember a season when I carried the weight of unforgiveness toward a close friend. The more I held on to that, the more it distorted my perspective\u2014not just about that person but about others too. My heart became guarded, and joy felt distant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually I realized that I couldn\u2019t carry that burden and walk freely with God at the same time. The Spirit nudged me toward forgiveness\u2014not because my friend deserved it, but because I had been forgiven so much myself. It wasn\u2019t easy, but releasing that hurt made room for healing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Forgiveness doesn’t always restore a relationship to what it was, but it does release us from the prison of resentment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s words in Colossians remind us that just as the Lord forgave us, we are called to do the same. There\u2019s a newness that comes with letting go. Peace returns; hearts soften; and the door opens for restoration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year, consider whom you might need to forgive\u2014or whom you might need to ask for forgiveness. It might be the key to the freedom and newness you\u2019ve been praying for.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At some point, we all face the sting of broken relationships. Whether it\u2019s because of betrayal, misunderstanding, or neglect, the pain can linger and affect other areas of our lives.\u00a0 I remember a season when I carried the weight of unforgiveness toward a close friend. The more I held on to that, the more it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2668,86,269,5003,5002,181],"class_list":["post-16153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-broken","tag-daily","tag-devotional","tag-relationships","tag-restoring","tag-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}