Today I am Thankful For

On This Day; I am Thankful For:

Forgiveness & Forgiving!

This past week found me being taught a lesson that, to be honest, I didn't really care to learn and certainly could have lived without (by my then standards) It was a lesson on truly forgiving someone that has wounded you deeply.

We often; as Christians, talk about forgiveness and for the most part I believe that we as the many membered body of Christ manage to pull it off quite well. But there are times when finding forgiveness in your heart is all but impossible to do. You want to. You try to. But somehow that forgiveness that you are trying so desperately to get a firm hold on manages to elude you and it's frustrating.

Resounding loudly in your spirit you hear the words "Forgive as Christ forgave you" but try as you might you just can't seem to really and truly do it. If you think about the ~wrong~ then you really haven't forgiven. If you talk to another about the ~wrong~ then you really haven't forgiven. If this ~wrong~ seems to continue to be the focal point in your prayers then you really haven't forgiven. What you are is looking to quickly be vindicated and that just isn't how the Lord works. (vengeance being His and all that).

Finally; with a broken (former proud and haughty spirit) I found my way to the Throne Room of Grace and told the Lord that it just wasn't within my power to forgive this. I have never been one to be able to hold a grudge and at 52 years old I did not want to begin now. I wanted to go back to the same loving person that I was before this event occurred and simply pretend that it never happened. But I couldn't; no matter what I did. I didn't like this person that I had become in less than a week. I want my life back! I wanted my self back!

The magnificent thing about the Lord is that when you shut up long enough for Him to be able to get a word in edgewise that He actually has quite alot to say about love and forgiveness. He should; being that He lived His whole life and then died based on the principles of love and forgiveness.

The thing about forgiveness is that if your heart is so full of love, full of grace, full of mercy, full of God then there is no place in to hold malice, vengeance, grudges and all of the awful things that the Enemy would prefer to see in there. There is just no room for it. The Lord can and will stuff your heart so full of wonderful feelings that you think that it can not possible hold any more and then He'll still continue to stuff more great things in there. Majically; as He is filling your heart with love, compassion, mercy, grace and all of the warm and fuzzy feelings that there are to have then pretty soon you discover that you have just walked off and left behind those awful feelings that had tormented you. It just doesn't matter anymore.

It isn't easy and it doesn't happen over night but I found that the more that I was willing to cooperate with the Lord to bring about a change in me then the quicker the changes began to take place. Just saying ...

There will be times during the course of your life things are going to happen that are painful, that don't make sense, that aren't fair. People are going to hurt you and they are going to let you down. Sometimes these things will be done accidentally and sometimes these things will be done on purpose. Regardless; don't let then hold you back and don't let them change who you are. You may not always be able to find it within yourself to forgive someone but the Lord is always ready to step in and show you how and sometimes even supernaturally do it for you.

So; I start this week off as a better person than I was the week before and I thank God for these chances (no matter how painful they are) to grow as a person, grow as a Christian and put into practice at least a few of the things that the Bible speaks of.

Thank You Lord!

“Let your beauty be found in “the hidden person of the heart,
with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which is very precious in the sight of God.”
1 Peter 3:4