Shame on
me. I’ve allowed life to consume me and haven’t been faithful in listening to God and
journaling the words He puts upon my heart. Gotta love free will, right??
**heavy
sigh**
So…here I
go.
I’ve
recently encountered a few people that seem to suck the life right out of me
and in turn I allow them to ruin my day. Anyone and everyone who knows me personally
knows one of my biggest quotes is:
“Don’t allow anyone or anything to steal your
God-given joy. They are not worthy of that right.”
Yet, as
humans we are easily set off by others by something they say or possibly
something they do. Why? What is it within us that allows another to flip our
switch? I’ve always been told no other person can make you “feel” anything, yet
many times I “feel” hurt, betrayed and even angry. I believe most people
experience these feelings and emotions but, in reality we are the ones allowing
those feelings to happen.
What are we
missing?
Why
does our focus and thought process go there?
Is it because we long to feel loved?
Why is it
some of carry our hearts on our shoulder and are so easily offended.
Did Jesus
feel offended when people didn’t accept him? Did He allow others to “flip the
switch” by what they said or did to him.
I know many
times in my life when someone has done something against me I’ve said I’ll
never forgive them – yet – I’ve done the same thing to someone else. It will
never be within our own ability to forgive painful attitudes and hurtful acts.
It can only be the love of Christ within our hearts that can exchange that hurt
for love.
Only God can
allow you to look beyond the offense and see with His eyes.
Crowds
mocked Jesus. Those that loved him dearly abandoned him. Roman soldiers nailed
him to a cross. (Talk about a ruined day!)
Yet, in the
end his words were, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
(Luke 23:34)
We live in a
broken and fallen world. We are going to be hurt, wronged, and sinned against.
We have been wounded and some of those wounds run deeper than anyone knows.
Jesus has
the answer. He calls us to love one another. He calls us to forgive one
another. He doesn’t want us to plan our revenge. He wants us to forgive. Not
once, but 7 x’s 70 times a day! If it was just that simple.
 |
| (This is not my personal picture. I got it from the internet) |
C.S Lewis
said it best. “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have
something to forgive.”
Love like
Jesus. Flip the switch and put the words upon your lips: “Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do.”
Blessings,
Bo
06/22/2015
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