Is there sacrifice in forgivness

This is in response to a request by a hubber.

In forgiveness there must always be a sacrifice. The sacrifice is to stop doing the thing that you are seeking forgiveness for. Religiously, it may be to stop doing a particular Sin, but person to person, it can be anything. If you are seeking forgiveness for cheating on your wife, you must stop cheating on your wife, sacrifice that relationship with the other woman, and ask for forgiveness from your wife. If you have been talking about a friend behind their back, tell your friend you are sorry and the next time what you said comes up tell them that what you said wasn't true and that you aren't going to speak of it again. You must sacrifice what you said and learn to be respectful to your friend and thier feelings.

That is not to say you are the only one who must sacrifice something. The one you ask for forgiveness must sacrifice a lot as well. They must sacrifice any mistrust that they have for you, they must sacrifice their anger, frustration and/or pride. Those things are hard for us to sacrifice when someone has hurt us, but it is necessary to do if you want to be at peace with your fellow people. You must always remember though that people have limits on how much they will sacrifice to forgive you, forgiveness is not always given from people as easily as God gives forgiveness. It is essential to remember also that we are all humans, thus we all make mistakes and it is not easy to always walk in a way that we are pleasing to everyone.

Now you must ask yourself, how much are you willing to sacrifice. Are you willing to give up that relationship with that woman, are you willing to stop talking behind your friend's back, if not, then you really need to re-examine what forgiveness really is. It is not just saying I am sorry. It is saying, I recognize I have hurt you, and it hurts me to have hurt you, I am going to stop what I am doing and I am going to respect you more, please forgive me. The true essence of seeking forgiveness is to turn away from what you are doing and trying to live better with your fellow person.

Now I have only covered the person to person side of things. The religious stage of forgiveness is a whole other topic, and since the request was not specific, I am going to assume that he would like both parts of the sacrificial forgiveness.

So in a religion that recognizes a need to be forgiven, Christianity for example, It is said that people are to ask God for forgiveness, recognize they are a sinner and need God's help, and that Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross paid for their sins. Well if you seek this form of forgiveness, then it is very much like asking forgiveness of a person, the only difference is that this person will not tell you NO I wont forgive you, unless you don't mean it in your heart. Anyway, You must DECIDE that you need forgiveness and ask for it, then you promise that you are going to try and live a better life, with the help of the Christian God. Then, even when you mess up, you pick yourself up, tell God you are sorry, and you keep trying harder to not Sin, you sacrifice your sinful wants for your Godly wants and desires.

Those are both of the parts of Sacrificial Forgiveness.