Release the Burden of Yesterday’s Wounds

Your neighbour borrowed money three years ago and never repaid you. Every time you see him at the market, your chest tightens. You replay the conversation in your mind. You tell others what he did. The debt sits in your heart like a stone, heavier than the money itself. You are not alone in this struggle—many Nigerian believers carry offences like bundles of firewood on their backs, growing weaker with each step.

But Paul writes to the Colossians with urgent clarity: forbear one another and forgive. The word forbear means to refrain, to hold back, to exercise patient restraint. It is not weakness; it is strength under control. When someone wrongs you, your first instinct may be to retaliate, to remember, to broadcast their failure. Forbearance says no. Instead, it makes space for forgiveness to grow.

The power of this command lies in its model: “even as Christ forgave you.” Consider what Christ forgave. He absorbed the debt of your sins—past, present, and future. He did not keep a record. He did not broadcast your failures to the angels each morning. He paid the price completely and released you utterly. Ephesians 4:32 reinforces this: “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

When you hold an unforgiven grudge, you become like a prisoner who refuses to leave the cell even though the door is open. The person who wronged you may not even know the weight you carry. Meanwhile, bitterness grows roots in your soul. It poisons your prayers, dims your joy, and distances you from God’s peace. Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:14–15 that our own forgiveness from God is bound to our willingness to forgive others: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Forgiveness does not mean pretending the wrong never happened. It does not mean you must restore full trust immediately. It means you release your right to punish, your right to keep the account open, your right to let bitterness define the relationship. You hand the matter to God and choose to stop carrying it yourself.

Today, ask the Holy Spirit to show you whose offence you are still nursing. Perhaps it is a family member who embarrassed you, a friend who betrayed your confidence, a colleague who took credit for your work. Write the name down. Now, deliberately release it. Say aloud: “I forgive [name], as Christ forgave me.” Feel the weight lift.

Lord, grant me the courage to release what has weighed me down and the grace to forgive as I have been forgiven.