R.T. Kendall - 40 Days to Total Forgiveness: A Journey to Break Free

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40 DAYS TO TOTAL FORGIVENESS by R. T. Kendall

Published by Charisma House

Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group

600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked BSB are from The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, copyright 2016 by Bible Hub. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version.

Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2019 by R. T. Kendall

All rights reserved

Visit the authors website at www.rtkendallministries.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kendall, R. T., 1935- author.

Title: 40 days to total forgiveness / by R.T. Kendall.

Description: Lake Mary, Florida : Charisma House, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019007063 (print) | LCCN 2019012870 (ebook) | ISBN 9781629996325 (e-book) | ISBN 9781629996318 (trade paper : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781629996325 (ebk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Forgiveness--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Forgiveness of sin.

Classification: LCC BV4647.F55 (ebook) | LCC BV4647.F55 K44 2019 (print) | DDC 234/.5--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019007063

Portions of this book were previously published as Total Forgiveness by Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-75639-X, copyright 2001, and by Charisma House, ISBN 978-1-59979-176-0, copyright 2002, 2007; Total Forgiveness Experience by Charisma House, ISBN 1-59185-552-7, copyright 2004; Totally Forgiving God by Charisma House, ISBN 978-1-61638-854-6, copyright 2012; and How to Forgive OurselvesTotally by Charisma House, ISBN 978-1-59979-173-9, copyright 2007.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

To

Jonathan, Ghazala, and Ann

CONTENTS

SOME READERS MAY recall my book 40 Days With the Holy Spirit. This was a follow-up to my book Holy Fire. We decided to apply this concept to my book Total Forgiveness. What you have in this book is an outline of my previous book by this title. You may read one chapter a day devotionally alongside your own time of prayer and Bible readingbut never as a substitute for such!

I am indebted to my editor, Debbie Marrie, for doing a lot of hard work in transferring the basic concepts of Total Forgiveness to this smaller volume. I must say, however, that the reader should remember that my original book, Total Forgiveness, is still in print and includes details not found in this book.

This book is dedicated to three special friends in London: Jonathan and Ghazala David and Ann Lloyd-Jones. These three friends have provided wonderful fellowship for Louise and me when we have been in London.

R. T. KENDALL

Father, forgive them.

LUKE 23:34

WE ALL HAVE a story to tell. As you begin to read this book, you may think it is impossible to forgive your unfaithful husband or wife. You may feel you cannot forgive your abusive parent. You may feel you cannot forgive someone for what was done to your son or daughter. How can we forgive the church leader who took advantage of his position? What about the person who lied to us or about us, or the person who believed those lies? The list of potential offenses is endless. There are rapists out there. Child abusers. Murderers. Often closer to home there are unkind or unloving relatives and former close friends who have become enemies.

Years ago I wrote a book called Total Forgiveness, and it quickly became my best-selling book. This convinced me that it is a much-needed message for our time. Since writing it, I have received many letters and emails from people. One particularly heartrending letter came from a couple who told me what their son-in-law had done to their daughter and grandchildren. It was an awful story. Are you saying we must totally forgive our son-in-law? they asked. That was a hard question to answer. But I had to tell them the truth: yes, they must learn to forgive. My heart went out to them. I can only imagine the pain they had experienced. But total forgiveness is the only way they will ever find freedom and release from the offense.

I have received many other letters that describe everything from infidelity to incest to rape to lying and slander. It is enough to make me consider very carefully indeed what I preach and write in my books. People experience real pain when they or someone they love is hurt by another person. It is often harder to forgive when the one who has been hurt is someone you love deeply, especially your child. I find it much easier to forgive what people have said or done to me personally than what they have said or done to my children.

It is not unlike Corrie ten Booms having to forgive the prison guard who was so cruel to her sister Betsie. Corrie saw this man viciously abuse her sisterwho died shortly afterwardwhen the sisters were in prison for protecting Jews in Holland during World War II. Years later Corrie was seated on the platform of a church, preparing to speak in a service, when she spotted this very man in the audience. She struggled in her heart. She prayed in desperation for God to fill her heart with the love of Jesus. He did, but forgiveness became even more of a challenge when after the service this guard rather glibly said, in so many words, how good God is to forgive all of us. She wondered how sorry he was.

It is often easier, then, it seems to me, to forgive what is done to us personally than to forgive what is done to those we love. But it is still very hard to forgive those who have hurt us directly, especially when they do not feel the slightest twinge of conscience. If our offender would put on sackcloth and ashes as a show of repentance, it would be much easier to forgive him or her.

But remember, at the foot of Jesus cross no one seemed very sorry. There was no justice at His trialif you could even call it that. A perverse glee filled the faces of the people who demanded His death: Crucify him! they shouted (Mark 15:13). Furthermore, those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself! (Mark 15:2930). They shouted, Let the Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe (Mark 15:32, ESV).