THE EVIL OF NOT FORGIVING

'It may be infinitely less evil to murder a man than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be a moment of passion: the latter is the heart's choice. It is spiritual murder, the worst, to hate, to brood over the feeling that excludes, that, in our microcosm, kills the image, the idea of hatred.'

George Macdonald in Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet, p.158.

HATE

'It is easy to be honest about God with our hallelujahs; it is somewhat more difficult to be honest in our hurts; it is near impossible to be honest before God in the dark emotions of our hate. So we commonly suppress our negative emotions (unless neurotically, we advertise them). Or, when we do express them, we do it far from the presence, or what we think is the presence of God, ashamed or embarrassed to be seen in these curse-stained bib overalls. But when we pray the psalms, these classic prayers of God's people, we find that will not do. We must pray who we actually are, not who we think we should be. In prayer all is not sweetness and light. The way of prayer is not to cover our own unlovely emotions so that they will appear respectable, but expose them so that they can be enlisted in the work of the kingdom.' 

Eugene H Peterson, Answering God, p.100.