In Praise of God

I have recently been reading a great book that I would like to recommend.  Unpacking Forgiveness by Chris Brauns is  loaded with Scripture and excellent teaching from God’s Word.  If you are struggling with bitterness or forgiveness because you feel you have been wronged, I strongly recommend that you read this book right away.    Even if you read this book just to be better equipped to help others, you will probably discover that you have learned something to benefit yourself as well.    This book is helpful for day to day, minor issues as well as large, life-consuming problems.

Brauns defines forgiveness as “a commitment by the offended to pardon graciously the repentant from moral liability and to be reconciled to that person, although not all consequences are necessarily eliminated.”  He goes on throughout the book to break this down and help you “unpack forgiveness” by explaining biblical truth about God’s forgiveness and your responsibilities as well as offering practical helps for dealing with your thoughts and feelings.  Brauns also uses examples of real-world situations to help put personal situations in perspective.

While Unpacking Forgiveness is instructional, it is also comforting.  One reason I enjoyed this book is because the writing style is very conversational.  The author deals with a heavy subject in a way that is manageable; I felt as if he was helping me through a difficult problem with compassion, and yet he wasn’t letting me off the hook for my responsibilities.

I resisted reading this book, which a friend had recommended to me, because I thought I would be loaded with guilt, and I thought I already knew what the Bible had to teach about forgiveness: forgive because you have been forgiven, and if you have been offended follow Matthew 18.  Yet Brauns unpacks many more truths that are worth discovering.

While reading this book, there were times I put it down for a couple of days to think about about what I had read and really process it.  Nevertheless, it is generally an easy read, and I learned a lot.  It is also filled with practical application.  I can truly say that reading this book and applying it changed my thinking about forgiveness and helped me deal with an ongoing issue.

In my next post I will share some points from the book on dealing with bitterness and how to stop thinking about an  issue that is consuming your thoughts.  Stay tuned…