Thru Christ, we no longer have to live with the guilt, shame, or wounds of our past. Sure, u might still have scars… but scars are just battle marks left to show what we've overcome! Open wounds, visible and especially invisible to the naked eye, are far more severe than any scar could ever be! When bad wounds heal they often leave a scar as a reminder of where we've been or what we've been thru. However, they can no longer hurt us unless we allow them to. Holding onto hatred, anger, or bitterness is a perfect example of this. When we allow ourselves to carry around these harbored feelings b/c a person or situation left us in pain, it doesn't hurt anyone by ourselves! Do u think that the situation that caused unapologetic grief in your life really cares about how ur feeling?! because it/they most likely don't care at all! Harboring ill feelings whether it be hurt, anger, fear, jealousy, etc. will only negatively effect u and ur future relationships with people.
So, I wanna challenge u to let go of whatever is holding u back. If someone hurt u than let them know. If they don't care or it's not possible to have that conversation w/ them then let it go anyway. Give it to God like u prob. should've done a long time ago in order to save yourself some added grief. (Trust me, I've been there and I'm talking to myself about this as well, not just you.) And, then take a step further… once u let it go, DON'T TRY TO TAKE IT BACK!!!!! Yeah, that's pretty much the kicker, huh? We generally like to play this twisted type of game with God where we say we're letting go, we say He's in control, we say that it's His will and not our own that shall be done… and oftentimes, we even believe it… but then again, more often than not, even after we say we're completely surrendering to His will and giving over the reigns of our lives, we try to take it back! Sometimes, we try to regain control a lil at a time; sometimes fully and other times just partly take control over different aspects of our lives; sometimes we realize it and other times we're completely clueless of what our actions really say. Which, as I'm sure ur well aware, just tends to cause more grief, frustration, and problems for us… until we wake up from our delusion of being the boss of our lives and give the King back his power to help us fix our mess.
Lately, I've been re-reading "Captivating" by: John & Staci Eldridge (b/c I absolutely love that book) and in part of what I read the other day, they pointed out that Jesus patiently waits knocking at our hearts door, He'll never just barge in. He does so before we receive Him into our hearts/lives as our personal Lord and Savior, but they pointed out that He cont. to do so throughout our lives. He can turn our ugly, messy, pain-ridden lives into something beautiful, clean, happy, and healthy! We just need to allow Him to do what He does best… save us from ourselves! We need to give Him ALL of the pieces of lives, not just pick 'n choose as we see fit. Sometimes, we think certain parts of our lives are "too far gone" or "we just need more time to clean up that aspect" of our lives before we give it to God when in reality, the more messed up we are, the more we can't do it on our own, and the more we NEED to give it to God to take care of for us! He knows every aspect of our lives anyway… but thankfully, thru belief in Jesus' ultimate sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, there's nothing He won't forgive! There's no such thing as "too far gone" b/c once u accept Christ as ur personal Savior, HE SAVES YOU W/ NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!!!! HE LOVES YOU UNCONDITIONALLY REGARDLESS OF HOW MANY TIMES OR DIFFERENT WAYS YOU'VE MESSED UP IN THE PAST OR WILL MESS UP IN THE FUTURE!!!!! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL IN HIS SIGHT B/C JESUS ALREADY TOOK YOUR PLACE TO BARE ALL OF YOUR BURDENS SO THAT YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO ON YOUR OWN!!!!! REGARDLESS OF HOW YOU'RE FEELING, KNOW THAT YOU'LL NEVER BE ALONE!!!!!
