Forgiveness

P 2122 Thoughts on the New Year.

/ DVH

“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT

I love belonging to Jesus! My life has meaning because He brought His meaning into it. Because of the bible I know that if I had a difficult day struggling with my flesh, I can repent, repair things with Him and others and … start again tomorrow.  However, I praise God that “His mercies are new every single morning!!” because I definitely need that. Read all about it in Lamentations 3:22-23; Psalm 30:2l; and 2 Corinthians 8:1-9.

The secret to being a joy-filled Christian is to live our lives continually being enfolded into Him. Isn’t that a precious thought? I remind myself daily, that His forgiving Love utterly depends on Who He is and what Jesus did. I am loved because He is lovely – not necessarily because I am all that loveable.😂 The Holy Spirit puts His arms around each one of us and He is holding each one of us up, in prayer. He freely gives us His help, and He reminds us of who we really are, by God’s good Grace. Our task is to stay in His hidden place of refreshing and comfort, focussing on HIM and not the humdrum stuff that rushes headlong at us. We may sometimes feel overwhelmed but we do not have to be overcome by this life.

Today I want to talk about another way to read the bible – we can read it to be informed, and transformed, but aside from that because of this book we can also see and know our King. It is good to read the bible as a love letter from Him to us. Part of being enfolded by Him is being aware of and comforted by His Loving Grace. Many people at this time of the year often make New Year resolutions hoping to change bad habits etc. – well here are a few things to think on today that we all need to be reminded of regularly.  Here are some thoughts I had: 

“I will remember, by choice, every single day just how much my Heavenly Father loves me, because of what Jesus chose to do for me. His love has no dark side or purpose in it. It is more constant than the sun in the sky, deeper than the Marianna trench, higher than the heavens, and it does not vary one single bit from one second to the next. People may get sick of me, leave me, hate me, or neglect me – but the Holy Spirit is always there for me, helping me, teaching me, filling me, guiding me, and caring for me.” 

“I am reminding myself, on purpose, that because God’s love toward me is infinite – His love toward YOU is infinite too. So if I feel I cannot love you then I need to remember that my love for you is proportionate to the amount of love I gratefully receive from Him. I cannot truly love you until I understand how wide, how deep and how truly undeserved and unconditional His love is for me.” 

“I am going to stop living with the expectation that everyone else needs to get everything right all the time. We all make mistakes. And with God’s help, I want to stop blaming other people for my own responses and reactions to this life. EVERYBODY has difficulties. So, I set my face to stop demanding that other people understand me before I approve of them. I will no longer excuse myself from doing the very things I get mad at them for.  I’ll remind myself that I cannot say I live in forgiveness, if I won’t own and confess my faults and stop making excuses for what I’ve done. I am not perfect, but God is not finished with me yet. However, He is not finished with you, either.” 

I believe we need to take the time as often as we can, to actively reinforce the things that our Heavenly Father has said and done, as well as the things He has asked us to do. This world encroaches upon us from every side, and the world view we face daily is selfish, and lacking any peace, kindness and true spirituality. If I am not aware of my own faults I could easily turn into a petty, mean-minded individual who is just looking for a fight or disagreement. 

My mission in this life should be to make other people so comfortable, they love to be around me because of His Presence in my everyday life. Christians need to be like honey to a bee. Sweet, appealing, life-giving and satisfying – helping the people around us, by inadvertently creating hunger and thirst in others for the reality of God Himself. 👋🏻

P 2098 I got the power!

/ DVH

Mark 2:6&7 “Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” So. Here’s MY answer – WE CAN, the Body of Christ. Jesus Christ died and gave us all the power to forgive others.

First of all that forgiveness opens our hearts to the eternal – and then it releases His loving Grace toward other people. When we forgive others unconditionally, we can use that authority to tell our enemy to take a hike. I usually ask the Lord is there anything else He wants me to do about what happened and whoever hurt me. You know, sometimes forgiving others, is more about my own pride and hurt feelings than the other person?. It is humbling to give up your right to protect yourself from someone who repeatedly hurts you. The good news is we always know the end of THAT particularly difficult story of pain and suffering – because it’s also HIS story!!  And that makes all the difference.

Because the Lord died in our place, and He was utterly innocent, we can clearly see the enormous power of forgiveness. There are many times when we too, will be innocent of any wrong doing. Those are the times to remember that when we forgive others, we are releasing the power of forgiveness – the power of God into the perpetrator’s life. It’s called GRACE. Grace is UNDESERVED – and it is given at great cost. Jesus did not deserve what happened to Him, yet He gave up His life, and His own authority to do the will of the Father. That’s our job now, too.

After His death, Jesus went to hell, where He stripped the enemy of his authority over mankind – forever! Then Christ was resurrected. And now, because He freely did that, WE have the authority and the POWER to forgive. He gave it to us. (Ps you hardly EVER feel like it – it’s always an ongoing choice!) What Christ did at that time, paved the way for the Holy Spirit to be with, and IN, every man woman and child who was ever on this planet. By taking away sin, Jesus released the Holy Spirit to do us all good. 

In John 20:23 it says: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” That’s power! We need to live our lives aware of how important forgiving others IS. We are now HIS peacemakers. I mean, think about it, who on earth would want to be a rabble-rouser or a grumpy, unforgiving person, when you can be HIS peace maker??  😳 The peace makers get a blessing – they get to be called the children of God! Wow. We cannot lose for winning. 

When you and I want to follow Jesus and live like He did, this is what our new life looks like, day by day. And some people are going to absolutely love us 💕 and … others are … not! Meanwhile we all know that the ‘nots’ can have loud voices and be pretty hard to take. That’s when I forgive them and start praying that the Lord will save them. 

Our enemy isn’t people – it’s the devil on their back. They’ve been lied to! We must make an effort to learn how to discern our enemy. Remember, now, we have a choice. We don’t have to forgive people – we GET to forgive them, He gave us the power to do it. And we get there the same way Christ did – we die – to self. It’s not a law, it’s His GRACE. When we choose to forgive others who don’t deserve it, we are taking the same authority Jesus Christ Himself had, and using it the exact same way HE WOULD. We have the power to change people’s lives – by releasing forgiveness and the Grace of God to do them good.

I bless anybody who hurts me, by accident or not. I bless the daylights out of them … right up one hill and down the other! 😂 I just keep doing it! I bless their kids, if they have some … I bless their finances, I bless their health, I bless their relationships, I bless their jobs, and I bless their spirituality with more understanding! I ask the Lord to bless them MORE THAN He is going to bless me! And that gets rid of the spirit of competition right there! 

Doing this has become a litmus test for me – if I can’t bless someone, then I’m still mad somewhere and I go back to the Lord and ask Him to show me what’s in the way so I can get rid of it. We have the power to set people free. That power can affect someone else’s eternal POV as well as their journey here on earth. Very few people are born into this world evil. Most people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet are just trying to find their way, make a few bucks, and raise their kids. They don’t know any better, and unless we forgive them, and tell them otherwise, they will stay there – locked inside their sinful ways.

“BUT I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; …” Christians get to do this daily. Could anything seriously BE more fun than blessing the guy who is driving you nut, and knowing you are sending the HOLY SPIRIT after them. God gave us this power for good. First of all, WE get free, and secondly there is reconciliation all over the place. I’ve been blessing some people for thirty, forty, fifty years – but God’s gunna get them!  ‘He knows a way where there seems to be no way -He works in ways we cannot see.’

My faith is not in other people. My faith is in the One Who came after me. TWICE! I know He is faithful – I want to use the power He gave me for other people’s good. Starting with my enemies. 👋🏻