TRANSFORMED, from broken to beautiful
Perhaps this question seems ridiculous to you, or even offensive. Holiness is an attribute of God, a part of who He is, so by virtue of who God is He is incapable of sin. So why do we need to forgive Him?
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Okay friends, I’m going to give it to you up front here. This entire post today is about forgiving others and it is long because I believe it is THAT important! The entire tone of my story would’ve been different if it hadn’t been for forgiveness. Forgiveness of God, myself, and others.
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I find it interesting that when we become vulnerable enough to “confess” to something we’ve done, all kinds of people come out of the woodwork to confess the same thing. I find that:
REAL connection with others comes when we become REAL about who we are. Click To Tweet
Lately I’ve been surprised to hear how many people have been kicked out of, or more politely stated, “disfellowshipped,” from church. I can understand a person’s hesitancy to share this detail about their lives as there is usually some reason for this practice. It is something I myself was ashamed of for many years.…
Have you ever been at the receiving end of a personal attack so brutal that it wounded you to the core. I have. Attacks by someone we don’t really know may be easily brushed off (unless you are super sensitive, which I can sometimes be) but when we are attacked by those we are closest to the pain is real, and it hurts.
How do we respond to the hurt?
Welcome to FREEDOM FRIDAY – A devotional, emotional, spiritual and sometimes hysterical series that I will be sharing on occasional Fridays, in addition to my regular Old Things New posts. Why? Because though once bound in chains Christ has set me free – FREE to live, to love, to dance, to sing, to be who God created me to be!
When someone lashes out it may be that there is an element of truth to what was said or there may be no truth in it at all. No matter what it still hurts and it’s easy to take up an offense against the person who hurt us.
*Maybe that hurt is manifested in anger, “Well FINE, if that’s the way you want to be, I’m done!”
*Maybe your response is to flee and to isolate, pretending it never even happened.
*Maybe the hurt manifests in deep pain, even fear of loss so that you crumble, taking all of the responsibility upon yourself and scrambling to make things right.
For most of us it is very tempting to hold an offense against the person who hurt us, running the words over and over in our heads, giving them new meaning, maybe even beginning to believe untruths said about us and beating ourselves up, rather than remembering and dwelling on who we are in Christ (For a link to Scriptures telling who you are in Christ click HERE).
This is just plain wrong.
Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense. Prov 19:11 ESV
Did you know that when you become offended, and allow that offense control you, you have stopped serving God? Click To Tweet
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Eph. 4:31-32 ESV
When we become bitter all the fruits of the Spirit that God has placed in the Christ follower, love, joy, peace, patience, etc. are replaced by all of the emotions allowed to supplant them, hatred, unhappiness, agitation, self -pity and the like. Quickly then, it becomes
All. About. Me.
Following Christ is all about dying to our selfish desires and living for Him, loving God and loving others as ourselves. So maybe we shouldn’t be overthinking and brooding over the injustices against us but instead asking God what is going on inside the other person that would cause them act in such a way. What has hurt them so deeply that they would choose to lash out? Where is God in their life? What deep pain needs healing? How can we pray for them?
Think of when Peter betrayed Jesus. Jesus was hurt sure, but His hurt was for Peter not Himself.
Don’t allow hurt to cause you to take up an offense and reproduce the same bad fruit in you as the other person has exhibited toward you. Don’t let hurtful words pull you in the wrong direction, away from God instead of toward Him. Don’t let what you do with the hurt lead you into rebellion against God.
Ask yourself what thoughts you are having toward the one who offended you. Are they true? Are they honorable? Are they right, pure, and lovely? Can you continue to hold onto the thoughts you are having and be obedient to Christ?
Forgive, forgive, and forgive, and when the feelings of the initial hurt resurface forgive again. Click To Tweet
I know this is hard. Believe me friends, I don’t write anything that I haven’t experienced myself. The core of our pain can become, in God’s hands, the core of our purpose.
For more help on Forgiving Others please refer to THIS post.
Remember that anything others do to you is nothing compared to what Jesus did for you. Click To Tweet
Blessings,
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome,RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace
Perhaps this question seems ridiculous to you, or even offensive. Holiness is an attribute of God, a part of who He is, so by virtue of who God is He is incapable of sin. If God is incapable of sin why would we need to forgive Him?
Welcome to FREEDOM FRIDAY – A devotional, emotional, spiritual and sometimes hysterical series that I will be sharing on occasional Fridays, in addition to my regular Old Things New posts. Why? Because though once bound in chains Christ has set me free – FREE to live, to love, to dance, to sing, to be who God created me to be!
The past two Freedom Friday posts have been all about forgiveness, Forgiving Yourself and Forgiving Others (and they are really good so you might want to go back and read them!). At the end of my post on forgiving others I led you through a prayer of forgiveness and afterwards asked the question, “Was God’s name on your list of those to forgive?” That question leads to today’s post.
We all have hopes and dreams don’t we? We also all experience disappointments when our hopes and dreams aren’t fulfilled, leading us to question God.
“Why have you allowed this tragedy to come into my life?”
“Why did you allow my marriage to be broken apart by another person?”
“Why must I live with this constant pain?”
“Why did you allow the lie to be believed that turned my best friend against me?”
“Why have you allowed evil people to succeed when I try to do good and only see failure?”
“Why did you take my child’s life?”
“Why can’t I be beautiful, thin, rich, popular . . . ?”
“Why did you allow that person steal my innocence when I was just a child?”
“Why don’t you answer my prayers?”
The Psalms are filled with laments toward God!
There have been times in my life where I’ve prayed with all my heart to escape a hard situation and no escape came, or when I prayed for something that I thought was good and was met with only obstacles, or when I prayed for God to give me an answer and all I heard was silence. At times in my life I’ve been angry and wrestled with God over things that I felt weren’t “fair.” I’ve also been through times of great hurt where I felt abandoned and questioned God’s love for me.
Many of my unfulfilled expectations were things I felt God should have done for me or that He should have prevented from happening to me, (you can read a whole post about expectations HERE) but God never sets out to hurt us or cause us harm. He is perfect in all His ways (Psalm 18:30). He can always be trusted to do what’s best for those who follow Him (Rom. 8:28) even when it seems to us to be all wrong!
When I hold a resentment against God it hurts me! Click To Tweet
Bitterness and unforgiveness hold me in bondage. They steal my joy and keep me from moving forward in all of the fullness that God has for me.
So technically NO, God does not need our forgiveness. He is sinless and He never does anything to harm us. In truth, when we are angry with God we’ve placed our own expectations on Him rather than letting God be God and:
If I'm not letting God BE God I'm not really trusting Him. Click To Tweet
So maybe what’s really needed is for us to ask Him to forgive us for our attitudes of resentment toward Him and for placing our human expectations on the one who knows it all (Job 37:15-16; Dan. 2:22)!
In Job 40:8 (The Voice), after Job has done much questioning of God, God answers, “Would you go so far as to question my judgment? Would you imagine Me guilty merely in order to justify yourself?”
It is okay to be authentic and honest with God about how we feel. He understands our disappointments. To really grasp God’s sovereignty I had to come to a point in my life where I was stricken with fear over a situation that I had no control over. All I could do was choose to really believe that God was in control. It is such a release to trust Him and believe that He has my best interests at heart instead of trying to manipulate things to my own advantage.
So again, no, God doesn’t need your forgiveness. He loves you and desires a full and unhindered relationship with you. Letting go of bitterness, accepting God’s perfect plan for your life, and allowing His peace to flow into those places where you’ve once held resentment will set you free!
PRAYER: Papa God, please reveal those areas of my life where I’ve held resentment or anger against my circumstances, but really against You. I know that as your child you only desire what is good for me but sometimes Your best doesn’t make sense to me. I know that you are good and trustworthy, even when life is falling apart. You are righteous in all your ways. I’m sorry for the resentments I’ve held against you and though YOU don’t need forgiveness I forgive you for not doing it my way! I may even be a little bit relieved that you didn’t do it my way! Today I am letting go of the wrong thinking I’ve embraced and trusting You with every area of my life. In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.
God’s best to you my dear readers,
All photographs taken at Symmes Chapel, AKA “Pretty Place”, in Cleveland, South Carolina.
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