Forgiveness Heals

Seventy one volunteers were asked to remember past grievances done towards them in a recent study
conducted by Charlotte vanOyen Witvliet, assistant professor of Hope College in Holland, Michigan. The painful memories triggered sharp increases in their blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension–all linking to heart disease. When the volunteers were asked to empathize and even forgive those who had hurt them, they by contrast, experienced a sense of peace and their blood pressure and heart rate did not increase.
Fred Luskin, director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project, has conducted forgiveness training on various people that have been emotionally hurt. After a week of the training, five women from Northern Ireland whose sons had been murdered, were much less depressed and angry. Using psychological test measurements, their sense of emotional injury had been cut down by more than half. Luskin says, “Forgiveness isn’t about condoning what happened. It’s about breaking free of the person who wronged us.”
The healing power of forgiveness was evident in a recent survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Among 1,423 adults, those that had forgiven others for past wrongs reported that they were in better health than those who did not forgive. Science is now endorsing the principles of forgiveness written in the Bible ages ago.
When Jesus taught us how to pray in Matthew 6:12, an essential part of the prayer is, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” We ask the Lord to forgive us as we forgive others. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14, 15).
In the University of Michigan’s survey, 75% believed that God had forgiven them for wrongs done, yet only 52% could forgive others. We cannot hold animosity towards others when we kneel down and ask God to forgive us. As the current scientific reseach concludes, harboring an unforgiving spirit can lead to detrimental results. By forgiving others, we can lift a heavy burden of pain off our shoulders, live a healthier life and have the peace of knowing that God forgives us.
Ly Lan Nguyen