Releasing The Grudge

"As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed saying: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Then he knelt down and said in a loud voice: 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And when he had said this, he died." - Acts 7:59-60

In my bible, right next to this verse, I have written down, "how can we have such love?" And while many of you might not agree with this, but I admire Stephen, Christianity's first martyr, for having had the love and faith to ask for his murderers' forgiveness as he was dying. I wish I were like him. I wish I had his faith and his love because this is someone who is truly free. I believe that when someone hurts us, we hold on to that pain and that resentment, recalling it in our minds with hurt and anger, but it eats away at us while the other person is fine. Holding a grudge against another person is a burden we set ourselves up to carry. Letting it go is much easier said than done, but at the end of the day, is the toll it takes on us worth holding on to? Stephen knew it wasn't worth it. He was about to lose his life and understood that it is better to lose it, then hold on to any hate, especially when he was dying to show an example of faith in Christ. And most of the time, the people that hurt us, don't even know they're doing it, or understand why they're doing it. In Stephen's case, many of those who cast the stones just didn't understand his faith and feared a change in their culture and society. No one teaches anyone a lesson by staying angry, showing hate, or holding a grudge. We only hurt ourselves because we allow ourselves to get angry all over again and never heal. We encage ourselves and take away our own freedom.

Today's Prayer:
Jesus, show us how to be truly free. It is inevitable that we get hurt by people but holding on to those grudges causes us more harm than the initial wound. I know You want us to live in love, but open our minds and hearts to follow Your example, then teach us to be an example for others. In Your Name we pray, amen.