Let's take our Bibles and turn back to the book of Genesis, chapter 50. The book of Genesis, chapter 50. That's a hard one to find. If you start at the beginning, you won't go far. Genesis 50, for the message this evening, there's a topic that I want us to consider this evening that will go as far as any topic in enabling us to hear the words, well done, when we get to glory. You know Abraham Lincoln, I've read that when U.S. presidents are being examined, people are polling who their favorite U.S. president was, who they're most impressed by, that Abraham Lincoln is almost always at the top of the list or very close to the top of the list. I've also read that his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, when people are polling who was the greatest first lady that America's ever had, that Mary Todd Lincoln is almost always at the bottom of the list. And there's a reason for that. Why in the world was such a marriage of such respect also filled with such disrespect? I say disrespect because she was a ornery woman. I've read that Abraham Lincoln, way back in the day, he used to give his staff who dealt with the house an extra dollar a week income on their salary for having to put up with his wife. That doesn't say a lot for your wife when you pay the help extra money to have to put up with her. I read that one salesman that was going to the White House back in the day when you could just go up and knock on the door at the White House. And he finally got in to see President Lincoln, and he just berated President Lincoln. He says, your wife did this, and your wife said that, and your wife, and your wife, and your wife. And that President Lincoln stopped him and said, sir, you can endure for five minutes what I have to endure all year long. She has been described as strong-willed, extravagant, and mean-spirited. It's been said that it's important to see that not only did Lincoln's difficult marriage not deter him from achieving greatness, one might argue that it actually helped prepare him for greatness. The Civil War desperately needed a president who could heal the wounds of a divided nation. I was speaking with one of your members before the service that met my wife and I when I was candidating for Keystone Baptist Church back 30 years ago. I've only candidated for a couple of churches and didn't get the vote for either of them. The only way I've ever been able to pastor is to start a church. But when I was there at Keystone and was going through a question and answer with the congregation on Sunday evening, I was asked a question that I've never forgotten. It was the wisest question I think I've ever been asked in the setting of determining who the pastor was gonna be. One of the men in the church asked me the question, said, sir, what traumatic experience have you had in life that God used to fit you to become our pastor? That is a wise question. Because it's in brokenness that greatness is forged. Books have been written on Abraham Lincoln's marriage and some have argued that his greatness came out of the struggles of his married life. A Christian writer of the 17th century once described a marriage as a relationship in which the bitter nature of its juice the bitter nature of its juice will provide opportunity to make the honey of a holy life." It's an interesting statement from the 1700s. Gary Thomas in his book entitled Sacred Marriage suggested that God didn't intend for marriage to be easy. And he posed this question, what if God had an end in mind that went beyond our happiness, our comfort, and our desire to be infatuated and happy as if the world were a perfect place? What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy? And it was in his book I saw the suggestion that Abraham Lincoln became the great president he did. because of the bitterness of his marriage. Now I'm not thinking about marriage tonight. So, ladies, you're not Mary Todd Lincoln. You're a sweet, lovable, wonderful group of ladies. And you have a wise pastor. But I do wanna think about relationships, whether it's a spousal, a parent-child, work associates, church members, relationships that we have in life. And what happens in those relationships that can move us toward hearing well done one day. because of how we handled our relationships. You know, at the core of our relationship with God is His love. We all know John 3, 16. And at the core of our relationship with God is His love for us that prompted Him to do the amazing things that He did in providing us the opportunity to have a relationship with Him. But you know also at the core of that relationship is all of our sin and all of His judgment that tore our relationship apart. But it was His love that enabled that relationship to be mended through the amazing gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to think for a moment about hard relationships, regardless of who the people are, regardless school, work, family, whatever. Relationships, and whether God has allowed us to have struggles in our relationships in order to make us holy, not happy, because it's in hurt. and brokenness that we have the opportunity to become holy by how we handle the hurts that we experience in life. Our text this evening in Genesis chapter 50 contains the word forgive for the first time in the Bible. You've no doubt heard of what some call the law of first mention, and when God introduces a subject in the Bible, there's sometimes, often perhaps, significant things about that introduction of a subject that will follow it through the Bible. Here's the first time that human forgiveness is mentioned, where a human being forgave another human being after a horrible hurt in the relationship. and how that individual who was so deeply hurt by people that he loved so deeply, how he was able to forgive, becomes for us the foundation of our understanding of how to be able to heal after we've been so deeply hurt by people we love so much. And it's our ability to grow through the hurt and to be forgiving people that just may well earn us that accolade, well done. Because in all the hurts you've had in life, you've become like the God who transformed you. Because he's a God who knows how to forgive those who have hurt him the most. And if I become like him, I will have the ability to forgive the people in my life who I love the most and who hurt me the most. Forgiveness is a powerful, powerful part of our Christian experience. It introduced us into the Christian experience and then it shapes our ability to deal with people as God would deal with people. And so we're here in Genesis chapter 50 and we're obviously speaking of the forgiveness that was granted by Joseph to his brothers who had treated him so horribly earlier in his life. And there are three subjects that I want us to consider from this episode in our Bible and maybe In the recesses of your mind, as we study this event, maybe you can be open to the Spirit of God reminding you of some people that have hurt you deeply in your life. By what they said or what they did, they left you with a brokenness and a hurt that went to the core of your being. And perhaps you can be open to the Holy Spirit triggering your heart as to whether or not the result of that was bitterness in your heart, anger, pride, gossip. What came to your heart when you were hurt so deeply? And as we look at what God did in Joseph's life, perhaps the Spirit of God will give you hope. that there really is holiness after hurt, you really can forgive the worst of the treatments you receive in life, whether it's from a spouse or a child or a parent or a neighbor or a church member, whoever it is. And so let's jump into these three subjects. The first subject is this. How people hurt you. Again, our text begins in verse 15. This is at the end of Joseph's life. Genesis 15, verse 15. His father, Jacob, who was renamed Israel, has died. And they've taken him back to Israel and buried him. And they have come back, Joseph and his brethren, have come back to Egypt after the burial of the dad. Verse number 15, the Bible says, when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. Wow. What a manipulative group of guys these brothers are. After all they've done to Joseph. Right to the day of the dad's burial. They're concocting a plan to try to use the dead dad to buy off the brothers and keep them from doing to Joseph what they would have done if they were in Joseph's shoes dealing with brethren who had done what those brothers had done. Dad, by the way, brother, by the way, Joseph, I know you don't know about this, but before he died, you weren't around, so dad told us, dad told us to let you know that he wants you to forgive us for everything we've done to you. How do people hurt us? The words in verse 17 are trespass, sin, and evil. These are the words that Joseph's brothers used to describe themselves in their concocted make-believe story of what their dad told them to tell Joseph. They knew what rascals they were. They knew all these years later, they knew how horrible their treatment of their brother was. And when describing their own treatment of Joseph, they used the words trespass and sin and evil. They knew what they had done. Verse number 15 says that when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us. Why would they think that? Because they knew if they were in Joseph's shoes, they would hate their brothers for what their brothers had done. He'll hate us. He'll requite us. He's going to get back. Now the dad's gone. He's got free reign. He's going to treat us like we deserve to be treated. And he's got all power, unlimited authority in Egypt. He can do anything he wants to do, and we're going to pay the price. It's over, guys. They had hurt him so deeply, and they knew it, and they knew what they did, and all the years that have passed have not erased from their memory what they had done to their brother. How people hurt you. My, how many ways that people hurt us. You know, just the chapter before this, in chapter 49, and in verse number 22, Before Jacob died, Jacob is speaking and Jacob describes Joseph. He describes Joseph as a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him. Here's the dad describing his son Joseph. All these years later, before he died, he said Joseph is like a fruitful bough, a plant, a vine, a tree, a flowering tree, a fruit tree perhaps. It's fruit. It grows. Beside a well it's got unlimited water. It's bountiful. The fruit is bountiful. It grows up and hangs over the wall. And the fruit is luscious. But the brethren, the archers, take their bow and arrows and they destroy the fruit of this fruitful... That's how the dad described Joseph and his brothers before he died. Joseph had been so mistreated. We remember this story. all the details of how Joseph's brethren hated him because of his dreams that God had revealed to Joseph, that God was going to use Joseph in a remarkable way, and so much he was going to elevate Joseph, and he would be in leadership and importance, in a higher position than his brethren, even of his dad and his mom, and his dad and mom even got a little bit miffed at their son for telling these fanciful dreams of how he was going to become so great. The brethren, they couldn't handle it though, especially after dad made his son Joseph that multicolored coat and treated him with special favor. They couldn't handle it when they were doing all the hard work and Joseph was just running the errands and came out to see how they were doing as dad had instructed him. And they took him and they threw him in a pit. They were going to kill him. They decided trying to... argue back and forth as brothers, what are we gonna do with Joseph, our brother, we hate him, let's kill him, let's just be done, once and for all. And then they finally decided to sell him into slavery, sold him into a Midianite caravan that was heading down to Egypt, they shipped him off to Egypt, took his coat, killed an animal, put the blood on it, lied to dad, and let him grieve over the apparent death of his son. The horrible treatment. He ended up in Egypt. God favored him and prospered him. Potiphar's wife lying about him. In and out of jail. The butler and the baker forgetting. Just the horrendous situations. Joseph had been hurt more deeply than I've ever been hurt by people that I love. Joseph was horribly hurt by so many people in so many ways. You ever been hurt? You ever had someone do something to you that hurt you to the core? Left you bewildered? How they could say that? How they could think that? How they could do that? And it hurt you to the core of your being? deeply painful situations that we go through in life. But let's look at the second subject. What does that person need from you who hurt you? The people that hurt Joseph needed something from Joseph. The people that have hurt You have hurt me. They need something from us. What do they need from us? Look again at verse 17. Verse 17 says in their made up story, they said, Joseph, this is what dad said. So shall you say unto Joseph, forgive. I pray thee now the trespass. Of thy brethren and their sin. You know what Joseph's brothers needed from Joseph? They needed to be forgiven. You know what the person that hurt you so deeply, desperately needs from you? They need for you to forgive them. Joseph's brethren didn't deserve to be forgiven. They were still to the very moment conniving and doing wrong, but what they desperately needed is they needed to be forgiven. And so let's look at the third subject, the third and final subject. Now look at that. I've only been speaking for 24 minutes and I'm already on the last point of the sermon. Isn't that great? The third subject is what does forgiveness look like? If they have hurt Joseph so deeply, and at this moment they need his forgiveness so much, if he does forgive them, what will that forgiveness look like? Now in full disclosure, the final point of the message has five sub-points. So don't close your Bible and pack up your purse quite yet. Joseph granted full forgiveness to his brother. Full forgiveness to his brother. But what did it look like? How would you describe it? What does forgiveness look like? Oh, I forgave them, but I can never forget what they did. What does forgiveness look like? I forgave them, but I remember everything they said, and it still hurts. Oh, I've forgiven them, but... What does forgiveness look like? We throw the word around, but what does it look like? I find as I study this event in Joseph's life that there are five characteristics of forgiveness and the first one is compassion. In verse number 17 and 18, the brethren said, dad said you need to forgive us and so We pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And Joseph wept. That hurt Joseph. He knew they were lying. He knew that's not what his dad had said. And when he heard them concoct that story and tell him, he wept. He wept over them, and Joseph said in verse number 19, am I in the place of God? Compassion has been defined as having another person's hurt in my heart. Joseph felt what his brethren were feeling. He felt in his own heart how it must have felt like for them to be faced with the reality that dad is gone, Joseph is in almighty power in Egypt, and we're toast. And Joseph said to them, fear not. Stop being afraid for your life. Am I God that I could get even with you? He felt their fear. He felt their pain. He felt what they were going through. You know, it's so easy when we're hurt to only think about ourselves, how I feel. It's easy when we've been hurt to only be conscious of what it's done to me. But I want you to notice that forgiveness means that you feel what the person who hurt you is feeling. And Joseph wept because he knew they were scared for their lives. He knew they feared that he was going to retaliate. He knew that they were feeling all the remorse and all the guilt and all that comes with the baggage of the horrible treatment they gave to Him. And He knows what they're thinking. He knows what they're feeling. And He weeps for them over what they're thinking. You know, when you really forgive someone for what they've done to you, you feel their pain in your heart. It's not about you. You feel their hurt. You feel their pain. That's what compassion is. I don't know who first said it, but it's been quoted over and over and over again. Hurting people hurt people. And so the person that hurt you, you can know that they are hurting from something else in their life. And if they hadn't been so hurt, they wouldn't have hurt you. And so when you forgive them for what they did to you, you own their hurt. You feel their pain in your heart. Compassion is feeling another person's pain in my heart, and I have compassion for them for the pain that they're suffering. not focusing on the pain that I'm suffering. Joseph felt the hurt of his brothers. I want you to notice the second characteristic of real forgiveness. When I really, biblically, really forgive someone, I feel their pain of what they're going through. and I refuse to avenge their treatment of me. Verse number 19, I read it a moment ago. Joseph said unto them, fear not, for am I in the place of God? You see, Joseph understood something. Refusal to avenge yourself is an attitude one has toward God. Compassion for somebody is an attitude one has toward the hurt of the one who hurt me. They wouldn't have hurt me if they weren't hurting. And when I can stop focusing on what they hurt me, or what they did to hurt me, and start focusing on why they're hurting, and I have compassion on them for their hurt. But the refusal to avenge is an attitude towards God. Am I in the place of God? You think I'll get even with you? You're afraid that I'm going to have all of you executed? You're afraid that I'm going to do to you what you deserve? Stop being afraid. Do you think that I think I'm God? You see, Joseph understood something. He understood that God is the only one who has the right to avenge bad treatment in human beings. I don't have the right or the ability to seek vengeance for people who have hurt me. That's what Romans is all about, isn't it? Romans 12, that amazing passage in Romans 12 where the Bible says, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. The Bible says God is the only one who has the right to avenge bad treatment. Joseph understood that. He was not going to seek vengeance because he knew he wasn't God. Don't be afraid. You think, I think I'm God. I can't avenge. I can't pay you back for what you've done to me. I can't get even with you. I can't hurt you because you hurt me. I can't treat you bad because you treated me bad. I can't wound you because you wounded me. I'm not God. I can't do that. Avenge not yourselves, the Bible says. And so real forgiveness comes with a refusal to avenge what someone has done to me. When I've forgiven you for what you did, I acknowledge that I am not God and only God can avenge what was done to me and I'll leave God's work up to God. Your pastor was asking for names of God And I had just read this name of God this afternoon, that's why I had it on my mind when your pastor asked. Someone give me a name for God. I like the winning name best, Jesus. That was hands down, that was the winner of the competition. But in Jeremiah chapter 51, And in verse number 56, the Bible says this, Babylon's treated Israel bad. And now Babylon's getting her just reward. And Jeremiah the preacher said, and he gave God a new name, Jehovah Elmula in the Hebrew. Jehovah is the strong God of getting even with people who touch the apple of my eye. God said, I'll bless anyone who blesses Israel, I'll curse anyone who curses Israel. God is the avenger. And Jeremiah as the preacher knew that Babylon was getting her just result because God is Jehovah Elmula. I call that the God who has my back. That's my English definition of Jehovah Elmula. The God who has my back. I don't have to get even with anybody. God's got my back. I'm not God. I can't get even with anyone. I have no right to get even with anybody. I have no right to hurt somebody because they hurt me. Because God's got my back. And God is the avenger of mistreatment. And if I forgive somebody, that forgiveness recognizes that only God can pay them back for what they've done to me. And it's hands off from my perspective. I'll not think ill of them. I'll not hope ill of them. I'll not hope that they'll have problems in their life because of what they did to me. I've forgiven them. I will not seek to avenge my brokenness. And then there's a third characteristic of forgiveness. Real forgiveness. In verse number 20, Joseph said, But as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Here's a third characteristic of real forgiveness. If you forgive someone for what they did to hurt you, that means you accept the hurt as permitted by God. You accept it. Yes, they did you wrong. But God's hand was in it. God was doing something that I didn't understand at the time. God was doing something that's bigger than my feelings. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And Joseph accepted the wrong treatment and the hurt that was poured into his heart. He accepted that as under the permissive hand of his loving Heavenly Father to accomplish the saving of a nation of people from starvation that he could never have seen at the time. They meant it for evil, but Joseph accepted it from God as something that was good. Wow. Forgiveness means I accept that God was in it. Do we really believe Romans 8.28? All things work together for good? Do we really believe that or is that just a plaque on the wall? I mean it's a pretty little saying to put on the wall. Or do we really believe it? Do all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose? Brothers, you meant it for evil, but I'm not getting back at you. I'm not going to hurt you. Don't fear. I feel so much pain right now for what you're going through. Your pain is in my heart and I feel for you. And I'm not going to get even with you. I'm not God. And even though you meant it for evil, God meant it for good to save a nation of people from starvation. And I accept your hateful treatment to me as coming from the hand of my loving father. And it'll work together in my life to produce good. I like country preachers. My roots go back into West Virginia. Amen. Almost heaven. West Virginia, greatest state in the union. The old country preacher was with some other preachers and they were praying. And this old country preacher got to praying and he says, oh God, oh God, I hate flour. And oh, oh God, I hate lard. And oh God, I hate, oh I hate that sour buttermilk. But oh God, you mix it all together and I love them buttermilk biscuits. Do we really believe that all things work together to produce something really good? If we really believe that, then we will accept what that person said and did that hurt me so deeply as being allowed by my Heavenly Father to work together with some unknown things that I can't understand. to produce a good result that I may not know till I get to heaven, but I'll accept it from God and not seek vengeance and feel the pain that they're feeling in my heart as I deal with this forgiveness. I also like the old farmer, another old country man. He had an honorary mule. An ornery mule that wouldn't do a thing it was supposed to do. And to make matters worse, he had a well on his farm that had gone dry and was worthless to him. So he thought, I'm going to take care of two problems at once. I'm going to push that old ornery mule into that well, and I'm going to cover it up with wheelbarrow loads of dirt, and fill in that well, and be done with that mule. So he pushed the mule into the well, and he got himself a buck, a wheelbarrow full of dirt, and he dumped it down the well, and then he went and got another one, and he dumped it down the well, and he went and got another one, and he dumped it down the well. Every few bucket load, dump, wheelbarrow loads, he'd look down in the well, and he could still see the mane of that old, that old ornery mule. He kept on, and he kept on, and by the end of the day, the mule walked out of the well. Because no matter what he dumped on that mule, it shook it off, it stepped up, and finally walked out the well. And that's what forgiveness is. You've got to shake it off, step up on that hurt, and you'll be higher in your life. Acceptance of bad. Here's a third. I'm sorry, a fourth characteristic in verse 21. In verse 21, now therefore fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. Can you believe it? Joseph is gonna take care of the ones who tried to kill him. And not only is he gonna take care of them, he's gonna take care of their kids. He's gonna care for the ones that intentionally hurt him. That's another characteristic of real forgiveness. When you really have forgiven, you will take care of the ones who hurt you. He said, the Bible says that Joseph comforted them and spake kindly to them. Taking care of the ones who've hurt me. Taking care of their kids. Here's a final, here's the last. of the characteristics of real forgiveness. He refused to carry a grudge. Come back to chapter 45 just for a moment and we'll be done. Back to chapter 45. When was it that Joseph forgave his brothers? This is back when the brothers came begging for bread from Joseph and didn't know who Joseph was. They didn't recognize their brother. But Joseph recognized his brothers. And Joseph could not refrain himself. He cried and caused every man to go out, and no one was there. And verse number two, he wept aloud, and the Egyptians of the house of Pharaoh heard, and Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. Come down to verse five, and now therefore, Joseph said, now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life. Here's the last characteristic of real genuine forgiveness. Real genuine forgiveness, from the time you forgive them, it does not carry a grudge against them. Long before Jacob died, Joseph had forgiven his brothers. Long before his brothers came to Egypt begging for bread, Joseph had already forgiven his brothers. He had forgiven his brothers way before all of this and refused to carry a grudge against them going forward in their lives. Refusal to carry a grudge is an attitude toward my own spirit. Can I control my spirit? Proverbs 16 says, In Proverbs 25, In that day and age a city without walls meant that any marauding group of raiders could come in and walk right in and take anything they wanted. They had no defense. They had no walls to protect them from enemies that would come in. And the Bible says in the book of Proverbs, if you don't have the ability to control your own emotions, if you don't have the ability to control your own spirit, You're like a city that has no walls and Satan can send any old little thing in your life, any old little problem in your life and mess you up big time because you don't have the ability to control your own spirit. Joseph had the ability to control his spirit. which means Joseph refused to carry a grudge against the people who hurt him so very deeply. Joseph was in control and was able to forgive them long before they were reunited in Egypt. I was reading about the Moravian missionaries who began to work amongst Eskimos and the Moravian missionaries trying to deal with the languages and trying to explain forgiveness to the Eskimos. And there was no word in the Eskimo dialect language, there was no word that that could explain forgiveness. So the Moravian missionaries, according to history, they took a whole bunch of words from the Eskimo language and put them all together and made one big long word. And they said, this is the word for forgiveness. And if I read the spelling of it, it looks like it's about 20 or 25 letters that actually, that don't mean anything and can't even be pronounced. It was just the jamming together of a bunch of different words. But here's the words they put together to try to create a word that they could use to explain to the Eskimos what God did for you and what you need to do for one another. Here were the words, not being able to think about it anymore. Now if you have forgiven somebody for hurting you, one of the characteristics of that forgiveness is the refusal to carry a grudge and not think about it anymore. You know Satan's really good at the, well this dates me, but the rewind and replay buttons Rewind and play, rewind and play, rewind and play. Oh boy, we can remember everything they said. We can remember how we felt when they said what they said. We can remember everything they did. I can rewind it and replay it and rewind it and replay it and I can get angry and I can get hurt and I can get upset all over again. Forgiveness is the ability to not think about it anymore. Isn't that what Hebrews 10, 17 says, and their sins and their iniquities? Will I remember no more? Aren't you glad that your eternal security is not dependent on God's inability to remember all that you did? God doesn't lack ability to remember. He has a will to not remember. I will remember their sins no more. And if you become like God, you will develop the ability to, of your own choice, your own control of your spirit, your own will, you will choose to never think about it again. And that's forgiveness. It's an attitude towards your own spirit's ability to not remember. Aren't you glad that's the way God is? And if God transforms your life and you become like God, you'll be able to do the same thing that God did for you when other people hurt you. I think one of the most important characteristics that we can learn in our Christian experience is to learn how to forgive when people hurt us. When people hurt us, it's an opportunity to develop the spiritual strength of being holy. And maybe that's why God allowed them to hurt me. because he wanted me to grow and practice the characteristics of my God so I can become more like my God in my relationships with people who hurt me in life. That's the core of the gospel of Jesus Christ and our eternal salvation. At the core of the gospel is the love of God overcoming the sin and hurt caused by humanity. And that's the core of our relationships together. I can live at peace with my fellow man and not seek their hurt for what they hurt me with, because I have become like my God in heaven. And one day, maybe, I'll hear that invitation. Well done. Come on in to the joy of your salvation. And that's going to be an awesome, awesome day. And so tonight, as we end the service, is there some unfinished business in your life? Someone who has hurt you so deeply and you've said you forgave them. Those characteristics don't seem to be at play in your relationship. You don't get along like you used to with that person. You don't really like that person anymore. You cross the street on the other side so you don't have to talk to that person. There's an answer. Go back and just absorb Genesis 50. And the very first time a human being forgave a human being recorded in the Bible and put it into practice. Father, I'm so thankful that you forgave me. I would have no hope had you not demonstrated all of these characteristics of forgiveness and filled my life with your love and compassion and gave me victory over sin. And Father, from that day to this, It's been a battle sometimes to treat other people the way you treat me, to be able to learn how to forgive others as you've forgiven me. But God, you have reminded me when I have failed, you've helped me to see my failure. You've reminded me of the importance of conquering pride and the emotion of my own heart and to learn how to forgive. Lord, I pray that the Spirit of God will help each of us to learn how to forgive.