SPLASHES OF…HOPE!
Hello sweet Sisters ☺ After splashing our way out of a wet last week of August, the Lord has blessed us with much splashes of sunshine to welcome in the new month and Spring Season! Aah. . . Happy sigh. . . You too?
Good!
I do hope it be the start of a warm Spring and a smooth journey through September for all of us!
Don’t you find that there are sometimes words that you feel you can “choke” on? Like that forgiveness word ..a hard one to swallow isn’t it? But if you wrap it up in that “ugly” word, that God hates, you find it can indeed be swallowed!
So what word does God hate then? “Pride”!
He has some rather harsh things to say about it .. here are a few examples for us to think about : Prov. 16 : 18 = “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty [arrogant]spirit before a fall” and Prov. 29 : 23 = “Man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will bring him honour” and in the N.T. 1 Jn. 2 : 16[b] = “…and the pride of life – is NOT of the Father..”
No. . .we don’t want to go that route do we?
Back to that word that “sticks in our throats” = Before we have a look at God’s take on it, let’s see how it gets there in the first place shall we?
That can be anything from a “minor” to a “major” thing … a misunderstanding, an insult, personality clash, outright mean and nasty verbal “attack”, jealousy = jealousy makes you nasty!, gossip that got completely misconstrued or exaggerated, and so the list can go on and on.
Anybody see / remember the Tele programmes they once ran about “Forgive and Forget”? [S.A. Tele]. Many of them had a “happy ending”, some did not. Choices bring that about. As Christians, we’re not let off the hook – not by God anyway!
It seems to be much harder to forgive if we say something like this : “I’ll forgive ..but I’ll never forget”… as long as we hold onto that memory, and every once in a while we pull it out and rehash it, like an old movie, we surely will never forget!
Actually, we won’t allow ourselves to forget, if we are perfectly honest with ourselves! It’s like we’re “punishing” that person, but sadly, we’re harming ourselves, and far more than we realize it!
Sigh…human beings can be so-o-o complicated, can’t we?
A booklet written many years ago by a Pastor was titled “Let go and Let God”. It had nothing to do with forgiveness, as I recall, but if we can take a hold of it when we’re finding it hard to forgive somebody for a hurt or whatever the cause of it may be, and give it to God, give the person to God and let Him sort it out. Let’s be fair now, and give ourselves to God to “clean our hearts out” too, ‘cause none of us are without sin!
God says “If you don’t forgive, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your sins” = Mk. 11 : 26. What about the verse in The Lord’s Prayer = Matt. 6 : 9 – 13, which prayer, by the way, Jesus Himself taught His disciples to pray?! But here’s the “stinger” : Jesus answer to Peter’s question about how many times he should forgive his brother, was = “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” = Matt. 18 : 22! That would be every day!! And from the heart, meaning every word!
Unforgiveness not only quenches the Holy Spirit’s Presence and Power in us, but robs us of His Peace as well, which means we’re easy prey for the devil! We can, if we really want to, swallow the negative stuff and go one step further : “Bless them…pray for them” = Lk. 6 : 28. We have to “let go” in order to “move forward” !
Satan wants us to “stumble” over something – or anything – that he knows will limit our Power, and rob us of our joy and peace that Jesus wants us to enjoy! Here’s a quick pit stop > > check it out : John 10 : 10.
Let that splash you and enthuse you as you journey on!
It’s not my intention to have splashed you with something harsh today, but it’s not all “bad”, and my heart tells me that ALL of us do need to be reminded from time to time because – sigh – we are so human, and we forget so soon!
We sure don’t want to be robbed of all the good stuff that Jesus wants us to enjoy!
I hope you agree with me, and still love me, ‘cos I’m splashing you with a heart full of love – – and a boat load of beautiful Spring flowers! ☺
Wrapped-swallowed-and-moving-forward-Rose xoxo