Quotes about Reconciliation

How rare it is, even among Christians, for a person to say "I was wrong. I sinned, and I'm fully responsible. My sinful desires motivated me, and what I did dishonored God and hurt you. Please forgive me.

I know from personal experience how damaging it can be to live with bitterness and unforgiveness. I like to say it's like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die. And it really is that harmful to us to live this way.

When you make a decision to forgive it's a decision that you have to make intellectually.

Only those who are forgiven and who are willing to forgive will be capable of relentlessly pursuing justice without falling into the temptations to pervert it into injustice" (Exclusion and Embrace, 123).

The number one problem in our world is alienation, rich versus poor, black versus white, labor versus management, conservative versus liberal, East versus West . . . But Christ came to bring about reconciliation and peace.

Guard your tongue, and use it for good instead of evil. How many marriages or friendships have been destroyed because of criticism that spiraled out of control? How many relationships have broken down because of a word spoken thoughtlessly or in anger? A harsh word can't be taken back; no apology can fully repair its damage.

But in Heaven we will have total peace. We will be completely changed when we get to Heaven—and so, too, will those we couldn't get along with while on earth. If God can make the lion and the lamb lie down together, we can trust Him to take care of our fractured relationships as we enter our heavenly home.

When someone hurts us, our natural instinct is to strike back—but when we do, we not only destroy any possibility of reconciliation, but we also allow anger and hate to control us.

Many times it takes just one member of a family to initiate the action to bring a family back together again.

In Christ the middle wall of partition has been broken down. There is no Jew, no Gentile—no black, white, yellow, or red. We could be one great brotherhood in Jesus Christ. However, until we come to recognize Him as the Prince of Peace and receive His love in our hearts, the racial tensions will increase, racial demands will become more militant, and a great deal of blood will be shed. The race problem could become another flame out of control!

God's forgiveness is not just a casual statement; it is the complete blotting out of all dirt and degradation of our past, present, and future.

Forgiveness does not come easily to us, especially when someone we have trusted betrays our trust. And yet if we do not learn to forgive, we will discover that we can never really rebuild trust.