A Servant's Heart: God How do I forgive?

Monday December 29th, 2014

Congrats to all the college/professional students on successfully finishing this past fall semester. Through the stress you got through it, and if you love the Lord as much as I do, you know it was ONLY by the grace of God! :)

If you have been following my blog and read the last 5 posts you are aware the Lord gave me ten topics he wanted me to write on, so far I have written 5 of those topics. I wanted to write the other 5 but then I lost the journal where I had listed them out and here we are 2 more days till the new year and I am now getting a deep impression of the heart(how God speaks to me) to write a blog. This blog isn't going to be the 6th topic the Lord had given me two months ago which may come out before 2015, who knows, but today I am going to talk about forgiveness. That pill we all NEED to take.

Are you still upset about that guy that you had made a husband in your heart, although he never told you he was, but then he did you wrong?

That guy who did say he was your husband and he loved you, then he either cheats on you, or violates you, or goes running off and leaves you out of no where?

A family member, close family friend or a co-worker hurt you whether it was today, yesterday, or 10 years ago?

If you've answered YES to any of the questions above then this blog is for you!

I remember just 2 months ago, I had just finished texting one of my best friends and she was telling me I just couldn't cut a guy off and not pray for him if he was struggling. It didn't help that text came right before I had to enter church that Sunday! :/

What had happen was there was this one guy that had pursued me in my head, before he had ever thought to pursue me for real, and he was now attending my church. Can you imagine that ex you never want to see again, now you see every week?! lol well that was the scenario. To my surprise I see him in church the first week and I am like ok I def don't care, then the second week came around and feelings of sadness, anger, confusion arise and I am just like REALLY?! I thought I had forgiven this guy and moved on..so I tell my friend how I am feeling and that's where her advice came from. Forgive for real, don't cut him off, keep him at a distance and pray for him. [end of story]

What happens when we don't forgive someone for real.. is it

eats at YOU,
takes away your precious time worrying and hurting about a person who has LONG moved on from the issue.

What happened to me and the guy above was I had just rolled my feelings of him off, blocked him off of social media, did a 2.5 second prayer and thought I had forgiven him, well that was WRONG. I hadn't truly forgiven him, I had put a corner of a fire blanket to put out the fire on my scorned heart rather than put the entire fire blanket over the fire and just forgive all together! But JANET, "how do I go about forgiving then?" Well here is how the Lord tells us to do it, and when you do, not only will you feel better, but you will feel lighter by not allowing someone else to stir your life and emotions except God:

1. Make up your mind to forgive. You've heard this before, the first step to doing anything is to say YES to the change. You have to mentally and physically tell yourself you want to move on from this issue and be at peace with yourself and with the person. Take the step today, its a gift to yourself.

2. God won't forgive you unless you forgive the person. If we look to God as our ultimate father, the best husband and guide to the best life, to not have him forgive us when we fall short will not put us on his good side and that's always where we want to be. We need to accept this and we must forgive so God can also forgive us.

3. Pray for that person. Let everything, EVERY last hurt and pain of that person, from the smallest matter to the biggest of hurts known to God. What prayer does, by speaking it out to God not only in your heart, allows you to let go of the load you have been carrying no matter how long you've kept it. Prayer is the secret to forgiveness. It allows God to overtake you with such a peace!

So, I did all three of these and I can say I have forgiven that brother. Knowing he won't be the last to hurt me is also something I have come to understand. As humans we will hurt each other, I know that this wont be the last time I will have to forgive! I am sure this goes for you too!

As you've finally let go of that hurt by forgiving the person who has hurt you, I would like to ask have you forgiven yourself? I am not sure what you are carrying within yourself that is slowing you down or causing you to not love yourself. Maybe somesort of sin, or self pity as overtaken your life. You may find yourself drinking and getting drunk, sleeping with multiple men, watching violent acts of pornography, cheating on your husband, lying, and stealing etc. I remember feeling like I couldn't forgive myself at one point in my days of deep sin ,two years ago but someone came to give you and me that power to forgive even ourselves! His name is Jesus. He came to give you a life where you can love yourself and your life again! All you have to do is tell God the sins you've been battling with, and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior to cleanse away your old life and give you a brand new one.

There is no use in forgiving others and forgetting yourself. Your soul deserves ultimate rest and peace as well!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.