Genesis 46-50

Day 31

Genesis 46-50

Genesis 50:15-17
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 “This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

Grudges are the gangrene of our souls!  I am a firm believer in this!  The spirit of person holding a grudge is slowly being eaten away because of their unwillingness to forgive.  Sometimes forgiveness is hard.  Sometimes the person we have to forgive hurt us deeply.  Sometimes the person who hurt us is dead.  No matter what the situation we have NO room for grudges in the body of Christ.  God is very clear in His word concerning grudges

(Leviticus 19:18) "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord"


Joseph wept when he became aware of his brothers’ fear that he may hold a grudge against them after their father had died.  Why did he do that?  Because Joseph new the danger of grudges.  Here are 3 things grudges will do to the person that holds them…
NON-SPIRITUAL EFFECTS

• Grudges make you BITTER…
(Holding resentment is like drinking a poison and hoping the other person dies)
• Holding a grudge BOUNDS you to the person who wronged you
• Grudges impact our future far BEYOND the event itself…
(Sometimes even causing health issues to incur)

Here are 3 SPRITUAL EFFECTS• Holding grudges will put a BARRIER between you and God because grudges are sin…
• Grudges cause your sin to not to be BLOTTED out…  (Matthew 6:15)
15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. 
• Grudges makes us BLIND to God's love (John 4:20) If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

The only way to release a grudge is to forgive the offender…  Not all relationships you may want to restore.  Obviously you don’t want to give someone an open door to continue any abuse.   Forgiveness is mandated, but if you want to restore the relationship that is up to you…