People can be so mean.

Some behave badly in an effort to make themselves feel better, others pass it on because, well, that’s all they know, and there are those who feel they have been wronged and believe someone should pay for it.  And sometimes, that someone is anyone.

Perhaps if you have been mean to others (and are aware of it), you might find it a little easier to be forgiving, because you can put yourselves in the mean person’s shoes. But if you have been hurt so badly that you can not find it in your heart to forgive, then what do you do?  I have heard helpful phrases like, “Let it go,” “Give it to God,” and “Turn it over,” and they are great and everything, but tonight I heard something better.

Beth Moore, in teaching her bible study James on DVD, captivated my attention tonight, as she does every Monday night.  Do you know what it means to yield?  Driving a car, if you come upon a yield sign, you slow down or stop to let the other cars on the road go first.  Well, forgiveness is an act of yielding.  Say what?  That’s what I thought when I first heard this.

Get this – instead of  “letting it go” or “giving it to God,” how about “yielding it up”?  Of course, if you are a master of letting it go, then by all means, keep doing what works.  But for me, yielding is more palatable than letting go.  There is a situation I am having trouble “letting go” of, I mean, I’m not ready or willing to totally release it and have it gone forever (or even just the rest of the day), but I can see myself willing and able to yield it up to God.

James 3:17 (NKJV) says, “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”  So it seems it’s not mandatory to give it up, it’s perfectly acceptable to just yield.  Next time you find yourself frustrated with this forgiveness issue, remember Beth Moore’s wise words – “Don’t give it up, give it over!”