Release, Forgive, Pray

Job 42:10 

And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Job had spent much time listening to his friends telling him he was wrong and full of sin. I'm sure he as not feeling the kindest thoughts towards them. However, God will only accept Job's friend's sacrifices by Job's hands which meant Job had to pray for his friends. It is when Job releases his bitterness that God blesses him.

We, too, need to let go of bitterness in our lives/hearts if we desire God's blessings. Harboring bitterness only creates a wall between us and God.

This scripture reading and understanding it is timely for me as I realize I have been harboring bitterness towards some people that have harmed my family and possessions. I t won't be easy, but I know I need to release, forgive, and pray for those who have harmed us.

I have also been reading Jesus Calling by Sarah Young and part of today's reading went along well with this.

I know precisely what you need to draw nearer to Me. Go through each day looking for what I have prepared for you. Accept every event as My hand-tailored provision for your needs. When you view your life this way, the most reasonable response is to be thankful. Do not reject any of My gifts; find Me in every situation.

We should not hold bitterness towards what aspires in our lives if we truly remember and believe that God is in control of all things. I'm not saying that God directly places hardships in our lives, but He does allow them for various reasons.

Obedience is Better than Repentance

1 Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

Does God forgive? Sure! Does God prefer us to obey the first time and not have need of forgiveness? Definitely and 1 Samuel 15:22 tells us exactly that.

Obedience is better than repentance. When we do commit sin, we surely need to repent and ask forgiveness, but it would be better for us to obey in the first place.

We can not live our lives thinking we can just sin and then ask forgiveness. If we live like that, is our heart truly repentant?

There is a saying, "Better to ask forgiveness than to be told no," but God's Word tells us the exact opposite--obedience is better than forgiveness!

I Apologize!

I really need to apologize! I haven't been posting any of my own thoughts lately because of a busy home life. We had a sickness go through the family a few weeks ago that affected everyone except me (thank goodness!). Then it was trying to play catch-up. Then the holiday was spent with extra time with Daddy home. Now we are getting ready to attend Bible Bee Camp for the next three days. Of course, after some time away, I'll probably be busy catching up again (not doing laundry for three days is really going to hurt!). I am really going to try to get back into posting next week.

I truly hope everyone has enjoyed the links I've been posting and will come back when I get back to regular posts!

God Bless!

How Do You Love Your Enemy?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” ~ Matthew 5:43-48

We are called to love everyone—those who are our family, those who are our friends, those who we don’t know and even those who have hurt us tremendously (whether they are repentant or not). Christ doesn’t say that it will be easy, but it is what we are called to do.

If we only love those who love us back, we are no different than the world. If we treat our enemies with hatred as they treat us, we are no different than the world. We are called to be different from the world. We need to forgive those who hurt us.

Here is where my question comes in. What does it look like to love our enemies? How can we show forgiveness and love without setting ourselves up for continual attacks? Does showing forgiveness mean that we trust that person (those people) again? Can we cut off communication with someone and still show love?

I have been deeply hurt by someone that I befriended. I prayed for her and her marriage. I grieved with her when her mother died. I invited her and her family into my home and showed her love, respect, grace, and mercy. She then took my trust and hurt me so terribly that I can’t even imagine anything hurting more (except by someone in my family).

I forgive her but also pity her. She says she knows Christ, however, “every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” (Matthew 7:17-20). While every person sins and messes up, this is not the only “bad fruit” I have seen produced from her. I’m having a hard time justifying continual bad fruit as mistakes and because of that I truly can’t expect her to live as I live because she doesn’t have Christ’s strength and peace in her.

I know that many of the things she has experienced in her life is of her own doing and she doesn’t even realize it. I know that if she truly did come to know Christ, then her life would change drastically and for the better, but there is a difference between saying you know Christ and attend church and actually having a relationship with Him.

That being said, is it okay for me to cut off communication with her? I do still pray for her to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. Is that the way that I am supposed to show love? Should I not cut off communication and continue to try to witness to her? Am I supposed to open myself (and my family) up for more pain by allowing her to have the opportunity again to hurt me?

I am hoping people will share their perspectives with me. I look forward to reading advice that is backed up with scripture.

My Prayer Today

“I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before  You now, day and night, for [my family] . . .I have sinned. We have acted . . . corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. . . O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray and grant him mercy . . .”

~ Nehemiah 1:5-11

As much as we try, there is no way we can keep all of God's commands. What a blessing it is to be able to come to His feet and cry out and know we will receive His mercy as long as we are truly repentant. Repentance means to turn away. We must turn away from our sin and no longer live in it. We must make an active effort to stop doing what is wrong. We can not continue to sin with the expectation we can just ask forgiveness later because that means we aren't truly sorry for committing the sin in the first place.

If you are living in sin (whether it be lying, gossiping, adultery, lust, etc.), please turn from it today and go to Your Father's feet and ask for His mercy. If you don't know the Lord as your personal Savior, you can do that today as well!

Romans 10: 9-10 says, "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

In addition to my prayer today for myself and my family, I pray that those who do not know Him as Savior come to His feet today!

God Bless!

Wait Silently and Think on Whatever is good

Psalm 62

To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

 ¹ Truly my soul silently waits for God;
         From Him comes my salvation.
 ² He only is my rock and my salvation;
         He is my defense;
         I shall not be greatly moved.
        
 ³ How long will you attack a man?
         You shall be slain, all of you,
         Like a leaning wall and a tottering fence.
 ⁴ They only consult to cast him down from his high position;
         They delight in lies;
         They bless with their mouth,
         But they curse inwardly.  Selah 
        
 ⁵ My soul, wait silently for God alone,
         For my expectation is from Him.
 ⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation;
         He is my defense;
         I shall not be moved.
 ⁷ In God is my salvation and my glory;
         The rock of my strength,
         And my refuge, is in God.
        
 ⁸ Trust in Him at all times, you people;
         Pour out your heart before Him;
         God is a refuge for us.  Selah 
        
 ⁹ Surely men of low degree are a vapor,
         Men of high degree are a lie;
         If they are weighed on the scales,
         They are altogether lighter than vapor.
 ¹⁰ Do not trust in oppression,
         Nor vainly hope in robbery;
         If riches increase,
         Do not set your heart on them.
        
 ¹¹ God has spoken once,
         Twice I have heard this:
         That power belongs to God.
 ¹² Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;
         For You render to each one according to his work.

Recently, I have been hurt multiple times by someone and just yesterday was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was ready to vent to my friends about what happened, then I read Psalm 62 this morning.

I am to wait silently for God and He will defend me. I am to bite my tongue (which I did yesterday) and not keep dragging it up by venting about it. Even though I am attacked by those who "bless with their mouth But they curse inwardly", I am to "wait silently for God". He is my rock, my strength, my salvation, my refuge! I can pour my heart out to Him and trust Him all the time. My power is certainly in God!

This also brought to mind another scripture that I was actually trying to remember yesterday when that final straw fell so I looked it up in my concordance--Philippians 4:8.

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

So, today I am trying to focus on what is good about the person who hurt me deeply. When I catch myself thinking about how I was treated and what was said, I ask God to forgive me for dwelling on the bad and replace the thought with what is something good about the person. I need to wait on Him to defend me and not try to do it on my own.

Humble Me, O Lord

Wow, it is amazing how God will see a weakness in our character and bring us to our needs about it. He uses the most unlikely (to us anyways!) ways to accomplish this as well.

Just last night (into this morning), God humbled me. I thought I had been living a pretty good life for Him, but He opened my eyes to a sin that I had been "hiding". It is something that I was thinking wasn't actually a sin. The world told me it was right for me to feel the way I did about the issue at hand. I've had numerous people tell me I was justified with my feelings (and some that told me I wasn't "angry" enough). But God opened my eyes to the fact that I'm called to be different from this world and in this instance ("And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."--Romans 12:2), I needed to change my thinking.

We had an answer to prayer (and even beyond our prayer) from an unlikely source. I was ecstatic about the abundant blessing until I discovered who God used to provide us with the blessing. My first thought was that I didn't want it anymore, but God immediately chastised me. How was I to turn down a blessing from the Lord?! It is up to Him to use whomever He desires to bless us. It was just after having this thought that Chad asked me if it was because I "hated" the person. I immediately said, "I don't "hate" __________!" But in reality, I think I did. I was holding a grudge for things that happened 13 years ago, 10 years ago, and the most recent was 4 years ago. Who am I to hold a grudge for even 4 years?! What happened should have been forgiven a long time ago and I was just letting bitterness grow in my heart to the point where I almost gave up an immense blessing from the Lord because of it.

I was brought to my knees during my quiet time with God this morning. I asked for forgiveness from Him and I feel Him telling me that I need to apologize to the person in question and ask for forgiveness for myself.

I read Deuteronomy 8:2 this morning, "And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not." I began wondering if the hardships we had been encountering which opened the door to receive this blessing was all because God was humbling me and testing me. Would I keep His commandments to forgive as I had been forgiven? Would I love my neighbor as myself? I can't believe it took me this long to see how wrong I have been, but I am thankful that my eyes were opened!

I Peter 5:6 says, "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." This is a promise from God! If we are obedient and open to His discipline, He will exalt us! It may not be fun or easy to endure, but we will be rewarded if we are faithful to allow Him to mold us. The nice thing is that He doesn't give us a time limit either. "In due time" tells us that it doesn't have to happen at a specific time, but when it comes "due" in our lives.


Thank you, O Lord, for humbling me and showing me the error of my ways. Please continue to prune me and mold me into the woman of Christ You would have me be. Open my eyes to any other "hidden" sin in my life. Show me how to truly live for You and show others Your love, grace, and mercy. Grant me the strength to humble myself before those I need to ask forgiveness from and not let my pride get in the way. Use me for Your honor and glory today. Amen.