The other day the Holy Spirit placed the word FORGIVE in front of me. The word was suspended right before my eyes. As I was looking at the word, the Lord separated the word so it said, FOR GIVE. I stared at these two words and the Holy Spirit said, “Forgive means to give before.” The Spirit went on to say, “I forgave you before you were born.” Immediately Romans 5:8 echoes inside of me, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Lord showed me that just as He gave us release from our sin before we asked for forgiveness, before we even knew we sinned against Him, before we confessed our sin to Him, so are we to FOR GIVE others. Before they ask for forgiveness, before they realize they sinned against us, before they apologize we are to FOR GIVE them as we have been forgiven.

Jesus said it this way, “Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9-13)

This changes our way of thinking about forgiveness, for now we have another way to be generous on all occasions for we get to FOR GIVE, even before they ask for it.