Total Forgiveness by R.T. Kendall

I think I mentioned before that I chose forgiveness as my focus for this lent season.  I got the 40 days to Total Forgiveness by R.T. Kendall and as I began working through each day, I realized I was going to need to read the original book in order to dive deeper into his explanations and teaching than the devotional did.  

This is a sobering book, I think I have said that after every single R.T. Kendall book that I have read.  I would HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone!  There are so many things that I want to remember - I journaled my way through (and am still also working through the 40 days devotional) - but two things stand out far and above the rest:

1) Total forgiveness must go on and on and on and on.  I choose to forgive today.  I wake up tomorrow and renew that covenantal commitment to forgive again.  This means choosing not to think about, talk about it (he does differentiate between talking/ruminating about the offense vs. seeking counsel and/or reporting/testifying about crimes of abuse etc;) - letting it go and trusting God will do what God does best.  He is listening (Malachi 3:16), He knows the truth (Hebrews 4:13), and He is ruthlessly fair (2 Corinthians 5:10 and Romans 14:10).

2) Love is a choice.  It is an act of the will.  Keeping a record of wrongs is also an act of the will.  A choice NOT to love.

I struggle with forgiving others.  To me, it feels like they are getting away with something, that there is a possibility they will never truly know the hurt they caused.  R.T. says in his book that 90% of the forgiving we do in this lifetime - if the person was confronted with the fact that I was/ you were struggling to forgive them - 90% of the time they would say "What for?  I didn't do anything wrong".

I realized that forgiveness boils down to a trust and a confidence in God.  Can you - can I - trust Him to handle the situation?  In His timing.  *in this book R.T. retells the story of David being confronted by Nathan about Uriah and Bathsheba.  Do you know a FULL TWO YEARS went by?  God's timing is SO different than ours.  And in His way?  God knows the motivation behind the behaviors, while we can only guess at it.  I mean just think about yourself - do you ever do something and then think "WHY did I do/say/or think that?"  God doesn't have to guess - He knows every detail (the very hairs on your head are numbered!)

The only thing that bothered me about the book, (I have the kindle version), is that at the end of every chapter someone's review about the book is included.  The print is the same, so it can get a bit confusing.  I wish the publisher had left the reviews for the very end of the book instead of sticking them in each chapter.  (I am trying to think back, I think a review or two are also tucked into the middle of the chapters?  I honestly can't remember.)  Anyway, I did not like the lay-out of including reviews throughout the book.