Releasing the Power of Jesus Christ
When I forgive in the throes of racism, I release great power through the love of Jesus Christ in me to set men free and position myself in the path of God’s goodness and mercy.
Forgiving in the throes of racism, forgiving the person who has discriminated against me solely because I’m American African and forgiving the person who might discriminate against me again, demands every ounce of strength I have.
Many people, of course, are discriminated against, but racism is so crippling because it carries with it a destructive hatred. And while I can gain new skills or education or dress better, I cannot alter the family of Noah in which I was born.
Forgiving someone for racism requires so much from me because racism can shatter my dream. Dreams are important. A dream generates energy and effort. A dream focuses me toward achievement, propels me forward, producing in me motivation, creativity, perseverance and diligence.
However, the lack of a dream can reduce me to a malcontent who is derailed and disillusioned by disapproval, disappointment and discouragement, placing me on a path of self-destruction.
Racism can shatter my dream, and in this broken place, I’m like a boxer knocked down. And while lying on the canvas of my defeat, I must trust God more than ever before to help me to my feet to resurrect my shattered dream.
“What’s the use of getting up?” I may think, and fall into anger and despair.
“Can I get up again?” I will ask myself, and if futility sets in, I may ask myself: “Should I get up again?”
In this shattered place, my sacrifice of forgiveness requires that I empty myself for the good of the one who broke my dream, to whom my forgiveness very likely means nothing. As the widow’s mite was all she had, and Jesus said she had given more than the others, my forgiving in the throes of racism, in this shattered place of pain, saps all of me, but it also, in the currency of heaven, generates eternal results.
And I can summon strength enough from my broken self to forgive the breaker of my dream only by the love of Christ moving me.
Then I can forgive and know that I’ve forgiven with indicators that are identifiable, recognizable and quantifiable.
Identifiable Forgiveness
When I identify something, I determine what it is, i.e., reality not a perception of reality. I identify, therefore, that my forgiving in the throes of racism is an intentional release of the love of Christ in me to someone who has hurt me.
The Cause of America’s Racial Tensions
Since some people scream “racism” seemingly without regard to the harm it inflicts, defining racism is important.
Racism is the belief that a person’s biological race determines their traits and capacities, making them decisively different. A racist believes he is superior to another race.
Racism is not the circumstances and obstacles of everyday life, which we all face, but opposition, an action (deed) or inaction (failure to act) meant to hurt another.
Racism is destructive hatred, a spiritual offense, which is resolved only by spiritual means.
In our era of political correctness, some blame American racial tensions on cultural differences or the lack of familiarity or misunderstandings. However, blurring the root cause of American racial strife also blurs the solution, leaving the issue unresolved—as it has been for many for years.
The truth is Caucasians and American Africans are not in strife because of cultural differences. European Caucasian culture is American African culture, more than is African or Native culture; it has always surrounded us.
The strife is not due to a lack of familiarity. American Africans have been here interspersed and intermingled and intermarried with Caucasians since the beginning—often against great opposition.
The strife is not due to misunderstandings. Caucasians and American Africans have not failed to understand each other; we’ve simply avoided the cause of our injury and treated our broken leg with adhesive bandages.
The root cause of racial strife in America is the oppression of American Africans, initially during slavery. Following slavery, state and local laws (Jim Crow) restricted American African freedom and the rights of citizenship. The courts struck these laws down, but policies and attitudes, generally unspoken, have maintained those restrictions.
The Impact of Oppression
Scripture often speaks of oppression, which is translated as violate, defraud, do violence, get deceitfully, wrong, extort, bruised, captives, oppressed, crushed, shattered, broken and contrite. Basically, the word means to exercise harsh control over another and to use one’s power against them.
Oppression causes great harm to the spirit, soul and body of man. And it is often easier to free man from the chains of slavery than to excise the oppression of slavery out of man.
Look at Israel, who miraculously left their place of enslavement, yet continued to bare its wounds. The adult generation that Moses led out of Egypt died in the wilderness while their children entered the promised land.
Conversely, most American Africans remained in the land of their enslavement to continue suffering oppression, which has caused a wounded spirit in many. Spiritually wounded people suffer, sometimes for a lifetime.
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? (Prv. 18:14)
Time does not heal a wounded spirit. Neither does legislation, education or social programs. A wounded spirit can be healed only by spiritual means, by the love of Jesus Christ.
While America has never repented of slavery, many Caucasians recognized the destructive impact of slavery and voiced their opposition while the voices of slaves were chained. Thank God, that from the very beginning of this country, Caucasians have fought for the rights and restoration of American Africans.
For no other reason than the sacrifice of so many, it is wrong to accuse all Caucasians of racism due to the actions of some. Such accusations violate the law of love.
If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)
Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah. (Ps. 7:4-5)
Identifying Racial Strife
While most strife is not racial, it is important to understand that issues unrelated to racism often hide racism.
In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron felt that Moses’ marriage to an Ethiopian woman gave them the right to challenge his leadership. This angered God, who personally questioned them for their attack. Notice in this passage that Moses twice identified the issue as racism before recording their challenge.
It is also important to know that strife itself often is linked to economics.
Abram identified the source of strife between his herdsmen and Lot’s as supply. Both Abraham and Isaac had conflicts with their Abimelechs over wells—supply. Jacob bought Esau’s birthright then rooked him out of his blessing—supply. Later Jacob and his father-in-law strove over supply.
Racism’s tie to economics sometimes is blatant, like when I discussed renting an apartment from its owner. Following our affable thirty-minute conversation, the owner called me the perfect tenant for the apartment, then asked, “You are White, aren’t you?”
When I said I wasn’t, fearing that all her Caucasians tenants would move out if I moved in, she suddenly remembered that the space was no longer vacant. I thought her fear was absurd, but when I moved in, they indeed moved out.
At other times, racism’s tie to economics is hidden in non-related issues. In one incident, a university official denied me state funds that had been set aside for minority graduate fellowships. He said that other students, all Caucasian, were better suited for the fellowships because they had higher grade points than mine, which I later found to be untrue.
Clearly, racism is meant to shatter me and my dream, but my forgiveness is always meant to heal me and resurrect my dream, even when repentance does not follow.
When I identify the contention behind an issue as racial, I don’t fool myself. I forgive the racism not the issue that cloaks it.
My forgiveness gives me confidence before the throne of grace and provides me strength and wisdom, which I need, especially if I am to face the breaker of my dreams again in love.
Recognizable Forgiveness
We can forgive, even in the throes of racism, when the pain is at its most heated state and when we may be bruised and beaten and shattered, crumpled on the canvas of defeat.
And we can recognize that we have forgiven.
We recognize what we have experienced before. So, I recognize when I forgive because I have experienced Jesus’ forgiveness.
I Recognize the Peace of God
What specifically do I recognize? One thing I recognize, especially, when I forgive in the throes of racism, is the peace of God working in me—peace during the noise of pain.
His peace makes me unoffendable (Ps. 119:165).
You can see this unoffendable quality of peace in Moses’ reaction to his siblings’ challenge of his leadership, which was not to react at all. The peace of God strengthened him in a way that he could bear their injury without returning it.
I experienced that great peace when the woman didn’t want to rent her apartment to me (Identifiable Forgiveness). I never blew up because of her blatant racism even as I suffered through it, which surprised me.
I now know it was the peace of God.
I Recognize I Don’t Want Revenge
I also recognize that I’ve forgiven in the throes of racism when I don’t want revenge. You might remember the envy of Joseph’s brothers.
And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. (Gen. 37:4)
When they sold him, they “saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear, ” says Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Years later, when Joseph first revealed himself to them (Gen. 45:3-8), “his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled.”
They feared that Joseph would exact revenge—twenty-two years after he had begged them not to sell him!
Their sin still “lay heavy on their consciences ” (Gen. 50:15-21).
All that time they had suffered self-condemnation, fear, discomfort, guilt and shame. Again, after Jacob died, the fear that Joseph would take revenge on them surfaced.
He could have, but in view of God’s plan for his life, he had no cause.
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. (Gen. 50:20)
I could have sued the apartment owner because of her racism and won, I could have challenged the university official who discriminated against me as well (Identifiable Forgiveness), but in view of God’s plan for my life, I forgave them and did not seek revenge, which is not my responsibility, but God’s.
I Recognize God Is with Me
Also when I forgive in the throes of racism, I recognize that God is with me. This is critical. Since racism very often is an attack on my supply, the need for supply can cause me to strike back. Therefore, rather than charging out of my corner swinging, I must trust that God will keep His covenant with me and supply what I need.
When God is with me, His blessing is on me.
Abraham’s Abimelech said (Gen. 21:22): “God is with thee, deal fairly with me.”
Isaac’s Abimelech said (Gen. 26:28, 29): “We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee
After this, Isaac’s servants, who were digging a well, struck water.
God also warned Laban not to do anything to Jacob as Jacob fled from him (Gen. 31:24).
When the hours of my job only were severely cut to make up for a shortfall in my entire department, I admit I wanted to put on my boxing gloves, cuss and file a lawsuit, but directed by the Holy Spirit, I reacted to the offense with forgiveness.
I distinctly remember one day talking and laughing totally without rancor with one of those who had discriminated against me. It was a surreal experience, absolutely due to the power of the love of God released through me.
I Recognize God Will Promote Me
And when I forgave in the throes of racism, God, Who was with me, promoted me.
Not long after I forgave those who cut my pay, an opportunity uniquely fitted to my professional skills was presented. I doubled my pay, I was able to travel as much as I wanted and eventually became the assistant director of the department.
Recognizing when I have forgiven supplies me with one other benefit. Knowing that I have responded to racism with the love of Christ gives me confidence before God in praise, in prayer and in fellowship.
Unoffendable peace, no desire for revenge, God’s presence and His promotion, recognizable results of forgiving in the throes of racism, belong to all of us.
Quantifiable Forgiveness
When we forgive in the throes of racism, as well identify and quantify impact of our forgiveness, we can quantify our forgiveness.
We quantify something when we count it, and we can count the results of our forgiveness in souls saved and relationships reconciled.
We also can count the impact of racism, as Numbers 12:14-15 shows:
And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.
And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.
Racism Impedes Progress
Until Miriam’s punishment for racism was completed, Israel could not progress for seven days. While this incident makes me speculate how much progress racism has cost the Body of Christ, the question I ask myself is, “If I don’t forgive my offender, what will it cost me personally?”
I know it will cost because my unforgiveness erects a double prison, one for me and one for the offender. If nothing else, it costs a relationship between my offender and me.
We see a relationship reconciled in Genesis 32 and 33. Here God sent Jacob to face Esau, whom he had offended. Afraid of Esau’s anger, Jacob reminded God of the blessing of Abraham. After committing his need for deliverance to God, he sent offerings ahead to pacify his twin. But Esau had forgiven him already. When they met, he did not even mention the offense; he was too busy loving his brother.
For years, Jacob had wrestled with guilt and fear, then sought to restore what he has stolen from Esau, but the blessing of Abraham had fallen on Esau also.
I realize from this that my forgiveness is my first act of intercession for those who racially discriminate against me. My forgiveness is compassion, like that of the king in Matthew 18. But it’s not good enough that I merely have compassion. The love of God moves me to act. Neither is it good enough to merely loose the debtor so that he doesn’t live under guilt and shame. I must forgive him and remove totally his debt from him.
Then—he owes me no more.
It’s wonderful to have an intercessor. I can still hear Granddaddy, more than fifty years ago, interceding for me with Grandma. “Lissie,” he’d say, “don’t whup the boy!”
Granddaddy was the kind of intercessor I needed. He had clout with Grandma. When he pled for me, she listened. And sometimes I even got off.
We have clout with Father. He responds to our intercession on behalf of people who have offended us.
You see that when Aaron asked Moses to forgive him and Miriam and to heal Miriam of leprosy (Num. 12). When Moses interceded for Miriam, God healed her.
Another example of forgiveness quantified—souls saved—is Abraham’s intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah. Then, there’s Jonah, whose message to Nineveh garnered incredible quantifiable results, although he was angry at God’s forgiveness and mercy toward them.
David Guzik, director of Calvary Chapel Bible College in Germany, said, “Jonah made three errors that angry people often make. [He] quit, separated himself from others and became a spectator.”
Adder’s Poison
I get Guzik’s drift.
I’ve found that offenses left unforgiven become anger in me, which is like adder’s poison, and develop bitterness. God did not create me to exist in bitterness, and if I don’t root it out with my forgiveness, bitterness will take root in me and release emotional, mental and physical tormentors in my spirit, mind and body.
It’s easy for me to get angry over racism, and when that’s over a dream shattered, throw up my hands and quit. When a door closes to me, not because of a lack of skill or ability or education, but because I’m American African, the old contempt, I can shut down.
I can separate from the offender and join others like me to share the wrongs done to us, and we can feed on our mutual pain and anger.
Then I can sit with the popcorn of my displeasure, watch and criticize what happens on the canvas of racial offenses.
But no matter how comfortable this feels to my flesh, it is not the way of Christ, who quantified forgiveness at the cross and reconciled to Him all who receives it.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them. (Luke 24:34)
A thief hanging on a cross beside Jesus accepted (Luke 23:41-42) and that day entered paradise.
As well, forgiveness was quantified at Stephen’s death. While his enemies savagely stoned him, he interceded on their behalf with forgiveness.
Lord, do not hold this sin against them. (Acts 7:60)
Saul, holding Stephen’s clothes that day, was one of those forgiven. And what great impact Paul has had for the Body of Christ.
Like Jesus, reconciliation is my message to the lost, but it also must be my message to my brother. Why, you ask? Because, and I believe this is more important now than ever before, Jesus said oneness in the Body of Christ draws the world to Him.
I must forgive, even the person who has racially discriminated against me. Because when I give the world a love message that it sees that I don’t live, I’m seen as a hypocrite and Christ as unreal.
Our forgiveness is powerful!
While it releases great power to set men free and positions us in the path of God’s goodness and mercy, we can identify and recognize our forgiveness, and even count the results.
“Forgiving the Breaker of Our Dreams”
To live like Jesus, we must love like Jesus.
That means we must forgive like Jesus.
When we forgive like Jesus,
We will see the results of Jesus.
We must forgive the breaker of our dreams.
In my spirit, I see Psalm 133 gatherings,
Black people and white, red and chartreuse,
Yellow and purple and even blue,
All of us in our blends of heritage blended together,
ONE voice of worship without walls before God
Who commands on us oil and dew, healings and refreshings!
When we forgive the breaker of our dreams.
What is the result of such a reign in our hearts
of the love of Christ?
Vibrant racial unity, a community of ONE,
Hidden treasures released and
Saints launched into His designed destinies.
When we forgive the breaker of our dreams.
Prayer of Forgiveness
The Cost of My Lack of Forgiveness
If my prayer is restricted by my secret hatred of you, will God hear me? Will He answer the part unrestricted and condemn the part restricted?
If you don’t love me but want me to think you do, are you secretly enjoying my pain while you outwardly console my tears?
Am I?
How much has my unforgiveness, the withdrawal of my compassion, cost me and the Kingdom?
When I ask for things I desire, believing in faith without doubt (Mark 11:23-24), but have not forgiven, does my prayer strike an iron heaven (v. 25)?
When I bind or loose (Matt. 18:18-35), is my authority rendered powerless because I have not forgiven?
When I pray in agreement with a brother in some righteous cause (Matt. 18:18-35), is my authority negated because I have not forgiven?
My forgiveness is blended to, and not an addendum to, each of these passages of Scripture.
I Forgive You.
[You can use this list to release your forgiveness to Caucasians for racial discrimination against American Africans. ]If you have:
Descended from slave owners
Called me names
Assassinated my character
Secretly rejoiced when I was in pain
Made disparaging remarks about my work ethic
Taken pleasure in my failures
Attacked me physically or mentally or emotionally
Loved me only as far as you could see me
Harbored ill will toward me
Refused to acknowledge my authority
Made me wait in line when it was my turn
Treated me as though I have less value than you
Refused to rent or sell to me
Refused to hire me for a job that I should have gotten
Charged me a higher rate of interest than you did others
Charged me a price more than you charged others
Refused to pay me for my labor or paid me less than others for the same work
Hated me or another American African because I or they wronged you or your loved one
Expect the worst of me before you expect the best of me
Right now, I forgive you, ________________________________________ (name of offender).
If you have received this forgiveness or are American African and have forgiven in the throes of racism, tell me for what and why at Community of Forgiveness GLOBAL on Facebook.
Article by Larry Colbert
Author of The Cup of Racial Reconciliation
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