Jeff’s Java Hour @ Chicklit Power
Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power…
As I pulled into our apartment complex, and up to our garage, I wasn’t prepared to be unable to park where I wanted to so that started me on bitter. That bitterness stirred up more bitterness and I began to voice this mental argument with someone out loud by myself in my car while drove around and around and around to find a parking spot at my own house. I was exhausted after a long day at my new job so I’m sure that didn’t help matters. The issue that I was arguing with this person about, unbeknownst to them, was the issue of bitterness! Why bitterness? Well, I was so upset that I couldn’t find a parking spot in my complex within a hundred yards that the issue of bitterness was naturally occurring in my thoughts. I started thinking of all the reasons that my wife could have left the garage parking for me, and one thought begat another which begat another which begat bitterness.
But then, conviction entered and I really got to thinking: Un-forgiveness is a great big deal and can send one straight to bitterness; and bitterness is the souring overcoming the sweetness in our hearts. Jesus said in Matthew 18:35, “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
That quote from Jesus got me to take the mental elevator up a floor. I realized how petty I was being and how petty we all can be. I mean, think about it; Jesus forgave us not only for our sins but He let OUR sins put Him on a cross, after having been beaten within an inch of his life first and forgave us not only before He died and before we sinned but also while He was being beaten and having His beard ripped out of his face, being spat on, mocked, tortured, wrongfully accused, despised, cursed at, and so many other things and then being marched to His death while carrying His instrument of death reminding Him of how much worse the pain was going to be shortly. That is hardcore!!!
And to emphasize the forgiveness and clarify that there was no bitterness, Jesus didn’t say anything back to these people, defend himself, or hit back because those people who were doing all of these terrible things to Him were all of us. It takes real power to be meek and forgiving. How hard would it be for us to ask God to forgive the people who were nailing us to a cross while they were doing it? Hello, McFly! I don’t know if I could do that… Actually I am telling you right now I couldn’t.
He did all of that so we could come to the throne of God with confidence, knowing we are forgiven, and can receive redemption, so who are we to hold un-forgiveness in our heart toward anyone? If the murderer still has breath in his lungs, then God will forgive him if he turns his heart toward Him and repents.
Here are some truths I am learning and re-learning:
Un-forgiveness spoils our hearts and turns our love into paranoia. We begin to see people as annoying and uncooperative. We begin to think that everyone is just out to try and get something for themselves and that there are few genuine people left in the world and if we are unfortunate enough to meet one, then we soon find out that they too have faults and won’t/can’t fulfill our unrealistic expectations for them.
Un-forgiveness will turn your gifts into tools to manipulate people into the places that you want them to be in your life. For a person with the gift of giving who has been taken advantage of over and over again begins to grow bitter and their gift starts to be used as a way to attach strings to people or they turn the other direction because giving is not something that lights that part of the heart up anymore so they don’t do it.
Un-forgiveness literally takes our spirit and our bodies through a slow and bitter death. It turns into poison in our blood and does things like give us ulcers, turn our hair gray, raise our blood pressure through the roof because bitterness is a catalyst for un-paralelled stress.
I am sharing all of this with you because I was incredibly convicted in my little car thinking about these things, thankful I was actually thinking about them because they go so unnoticed every day. I am so used to living with my issues that I forget what they Bible tells me about this very subject. I need to forgive; we need to forgive, guys.
Is there someone in your life who needs your forgiveness? Ask God to bring to mind anyone in your life who you haven’t forgiven yet. You will be surprised, because when you ask, He will answer, and the crazy thing is it may be someone that you thought that you have already forgiven. This means that we have to keep forgiving that person, not just a one timer, but perhaps over and over again, especially if you see this person all the time!
Chances are if you can’t help but complain about someone when you see them or even think about them, then there is something that they have done that you haven’t forgiven them for, or maybe you need to keep forgiving them until you are completely set free from whatever it is. I was told once, from a very wise man, pray for them. And I know, it’s like “DUHHHHHH” we should pray for them, but he said not just to pray for them but to pray that God blesses that person and get specific with it.
As I made my way upstairs, I was actually grateful for the extra time it took to park because it gave God some time to deal with my heart!
Thank you for letting me share what “was” on my heart!
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