The 911 Handbook Study Guide Questions

Lesson 5 / Chapter 5

When You Can't Forgive Someone: Who Is In Your Dungeon?

Read Matthew 18: 23-30.

Why do you think the first slave forgot how much he was forgiven ($50 million)?

First, We base our forgiveness on what God has done for us, rather than on what the person has done to us.

What do most people base their forgiveness of others upon?

Explain how Christ's death on the cross changed our perspective on how we view others and what they may have done to us.

Discuss the analogy between the $15 debt and the $50 million debt.

Second, We must let God heal our past wounds.

Discuss the story about the boy sitting on a bumble bee. How this applies when we have been hurt by someone.

Third, We need to feel compassion for the person who hurt us.

The king felt compassion of the slave. Discuss how feeling compassion for a person can move us to forgive.

How can we gain compassion for the person who hurt us?

Fourth, We choose to pay off the debt the person owes us.

When the king forgave the slave, he paid off the debt himself. What does it mean to "pay off the debt" when we forgive someone?

What is the proof that we have done this?

Fifth, We stop replaying the hurt on the screen of our minds.

What does it mean to hit the "play" button on the VCR in our minds?

How does replaying the hurt cause the pain to be multiplied worse than the original wounding?

How can we "erase the tape" in our minds?

Sixth, We must release the person from our prison.

The king forgave and released the slave from the debt. Forgiveness is not complete until you release the person from the dungeon of your soul.

Discuss how it takes an act of the will to release someone out of your prison.

Explain how releasing people from the dungeon of your soul sets you free.