2 Corinthians 2:10-11 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

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If unforgiveness creeps into our lives, it will eventually lead to bitterness. When bitterness begins its work, it leads to total corruption in every part of our life. Bitterness is like rust. If you don’t deal with it, it will eat away at whatever it touches. You will be left with nothing but an empty shell.
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Not being able to forgive others is a problem all Christians face. Young and old alike are perceptible to allowing an unforgiving spirit into their life because of perceived offenses we deem unredeemable. How quickly we forget the forgiveness we received from Christ for our sins and somehow justify our position of not forgiving others.
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We will excuse ourselves for many reasons. One of the chief tools that Satan will use to drive us from forgiving is trust. We can rationalize away our lack of forgiveness because we aren’t ready to trust someone. However, trust has nothing to do with forgiveness. Forgiveness is freely given with no strings attached, while trust must be earned.
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Another mental somersault we perform to bypass forgiveness is avoidance. We pretend that the problem never existed, and we hide from dealing with it. Deep down, we despise the person who has hurt us, but if we don’t bring it up and we avoid the person, we pretend that the problem will go away. All the while, the person that hurt us goes about their life and we stew in bitterness.
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No matter what we come up with, there’s no excuse to live our lives with an unforgiving attitude. We must forgive early and forgive every time. If not, we give Satan the advantage. We cannot be victorious in our Christian life when we give Satan the upper hand. May we as Christians have a forgiving spirit and never give Satan the advantage.