Rescue Your Future - Forgive

Rescue Your Future – Forgive

In the journey of life, someone will offend you - deliberately or unknowingly. You will be let down, taken advantage of and even sabotaged or something worse! In the process, you will be hurt and often experience pain that goes deep into your soul.  That is why it is of paramount importance that you guard your heart against bitterness.

Bitterness grows from unforgiven offense and hurt.  The hurt finds root when you entertain and harbor resentment against your offenders.  Before long, the root germinates and buds into bitterness. This heavy emotion is such a dominating force. When it grabs your heart, your thoughts and energy revolve around what happened and the pain it has caused. It robs you of joy and hope resulting in health problems and depression. In trying to imprison offenders in your heart, you effectively imprison yourself in the past. Harboring bitterness is like keeping a snake in your heart, it will only bite the one carrying it.

Unforgiveness not only creates trouble for you and those around you, it ultimately creates problems with God. It hinders prayer and provides a landing pad for evil in your life. Therefore, to avoid suffering double jeopardy of being offended as well as being condemned to a life of carrying offense. Rescue your future by finding grace to forgive.  Remember that your offender is free and may not even be aware you are hurting that much. Let go and move on. The cross of Christ readily teaches and avails sufficient grace for us to forgive.

LINK:  http://wordoers.blogspot.com/2012/10/grace-to-forgive.html

A New Life Script

A New Life Script

When Christians in Damascus heard he was coming, many probably began praying[1] their last prayers.  Saul was coming armed with letters from the high priest in Jerusalem to arrest believers and hand them over to authorities in Jerusalem. Profoundly so, it was in fact the risen King who ambushed and arrested him as he neared Damascus, handing him over to the believers in Damascus. The people he had intended to destroy became his door of hope. God rewrote his mandate and gave him new letters which were in line with his calling from birth[2].  As Saul became Paul, his life and mission were positively transformed making the outstanding apostle who took the gospel everywhere and wrote letters that still inspire us today. From breathing murderous threats, Paul began to preach life and peace. From carrying letters of self-destruction[3], he received letters of life. Which letters are you carrying? Are they letters of life or destruction? What script is guiding your life and driving your motivations? God can rewrite the script of your life.

It is important to know and remember that these new letters came at a price for Paul. Christ paid for all blessings at the cross. Nevertheless, to enjoy the blessings you need to let go of something. Exchange something of no value and temporal worth for something of immeasurably greater value.  The moment you let go what you are holding on to, you make room for God's best.  Saul let go of his sinful ambition, 'the familiar', the old letters, and his old name[4].   How much are you willing to let go to obtain better things God has for you[5].  Pay the ashes to gain the beauty[6].

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[1] Acts 9:1-9

[2] Galatians 1:15

[3] Acts 9:4,6

[4] Acts 9:5

[5] Jeremiah 29:11

[6] Isaiah 61:1

Break Through in Your Hands

Break Through in Your Hands

17-23 October 2012

A school boy clasped a small bird between his two hands. The bird was alive but held in a way that it could be squeezed to death at any moment. To test the village Wiseman, he asked him to tell if the bird was alive or dead. True to his reputation as a Wiseman he did not rush to give an answer. He then smiled and said to the young man, ‘the answer is in your hands’. Your status quo is a product of choices you have made or failed to make in the past. If your future projections are bleak, they can be different, but not without you doing something differently. The choices you start making today, will be the difference.Take the necessary steps and create a better story for your life. Wisdom is deliberately making choices that propel your God given dreams and abilities.

In the Bible book of Judges, all the mighty men were helplessly timid before their oppressors.  They wished for better days because their livelihood was disrupted and things were not getting any better. Everything continued on a downward spiral until Deborah the prophetess arose[1]. What made Deborah, a woman, arise where everyone else was in hiding? Courageously, she did not despise her gender and was not discouraged by circumstances. Deborah knew something about God others were not seeing[2]. Such knowledge comes from being full of God’s word- the source of wisdom and courage. Wisdom from above plus courage is what  faith is made of. Where there is faith, God will use the least expected people and unlikely things, as instruments to accomplish his purpose. During the war even the stars and river were used to fight.[3] Not only did God use women, but also milk and a tent peg to seal victory.[4]

When you arise, things cannot remain the same. It does not matter how bad the situation has become. Is it sin, witchcraft, poverty, misfortune, curses, etc? The time to arise in Jesus’ name for your family, your church and yourself has come. Your victory has long waited for you to arise. Your break through lies in your hands. Instead of mourning about the undesirable state of your life, challenge it. Begin to believe that things can be positively better. Begin to pray, store God’s word in your heart, explore, learn and consult. Do not disqualify yourself. It is time to dream again.

 ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do nothing.’ – Edmund Burke.

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[1] Judges 5:6-7

[2] Ephesians 1:17

[3] Judges 5:20-21

[4] Judges 4:18-2; 5:25, 26

No Turning Back

No Turning Back

10 - 16 October 2012

Beginning something has excitement but the test lies in being able to continue until you finish. Finishing gives the ultimate joy and reward. The book of Numbers gives an account of how the children of Israel wandered for forty years and lost a whole generation in the wilderness. They oscillated between spiritual highs and lows because of failure to sustain the revelation of God which inspired them at the beginning. 

God's revelation comes with a promise. The challenge is maintaining focus and patience when migrating from the place of revelation to the fulfillment of its promise.  The people of Israel did not find this easy to achieve. They murmured and spoke against Moses and against God (Numbers 21:5, 6). They accused both, of bringing them to a place with no water and no meat in order to kill them. They remembered the garlic and food of Egypt but forgot the slavery and hard labor. They spoke discontentedly of what God had done for them, and distrustfully of what he would do. In short, they forgot both the goodness of God and the hardships of the past. 

For you today, the truth is there is nothing to go back to in a godless past. God grant you grace not to look back negatively until you cross the finish line. Like a friend said, the future is so bright you need eye shades.