FREEDOM IN FORGIVENESS

 FREEDOM IN FORGIVENESS

 

Around the Year with Emmet Fox

 

February 16

 

“If ye forgive men their trespasses,

your heavenly Father

will also forgive you”

Matthew 6:14

 

Setting others free means setting yourself free,

because resentment is really a form of attachment.

It is a cosmic truth

that it takes two to make a prisoner;

a prisoner and a jailer.

There is no such thing as being a prisoner

on one's own account.

Moreover, the jailer is as much a prisoner

as his charge.

When you hold resentment against anyone,

you are bound to that person by a mental chain.

You are tied by a cosmic tie to the thing that you hate.

The one person perhaps in the whole world

whom you most dislike is the very one

to whom you are attaching yourself

by a hook that is stronger than steel.

Is this what you wish?

Is this the condition

 in which you desire to go on living?

Remember, you belong to the thing

with which you are linked in thought,

and at some time or other, if that tie endures,

the object of your resentment

will be drawn again into your life,

perhaps to work further havoc.

No one can afford such a thing;

and so, you must cut all such ties

 by a clear act of forgiveness.

You must loose him and let him go.

By forgiveness you set yourself free;

you save your soul.

And because the law of love

works alike for one and all,

you help to save his soul too.