The inability to forgive is incarcerating. The offender is placed in the jail and the offended is the jail keeper. Each has a different position, role and authority, but both are in prison together. Forever bound, until forgiveness has had its way.
The punishment for the crime is logical, but to tether a living thing to a dead thing is lunacy. How long will you carry this dead thing? How long will you exact payment from the past, by mortgaging your future?
Think closely about the consequence, the measure in which you forgive is the same measure, I will render, towards the forgiveness you seek. Is holding onto the pain worth the internal sufferings?
MY grace is sufficient, you have MY permission to let it go and I will be your vengeance. I will make the crooked places straight and I will blaze a righteous trail for restoration, but first, you must release the pain.
Isaiah 42:1-2
Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron.
I Might Be a Prophet 