forgive (v.) 1a. to give up resentment of or claim to requital 1b.To grant relief from payment of
Luke 6:27-31 (ESV) But I say to you who hear, Love yourenemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
As some of you may know, I went to Gainesville, Georgia for training camp for ten days! I’m officially home now and I have soooo much to share what God has done and is doing!
My heart is filled with gratitude, love, thanksgiving, joy, purpose, humility, and AWE of our Creator.
The closer I get to our Father the more I’m baffled and humbled by His goodness. He loves us SO much.
I honestly wish I could bottle the whole transformation I’ve underwent in Georgia and share it with you all. Alas, I will try!
My brain is overfilling with experiences of being immersed in a culture where EVERYONE in my presence LOVES JESUS and are picking up their crosses to follow Him.
I’ve met so many beautiful souls who are so intimate with The Lord that He flows through them so freely you can’t help but hug them, smile, want to be near them, and want to pursue a deeper intimacy with The Lord!
I’ve graciously been given this opportunity and I’m eternally grateful.
My head is still spinning with all I’ve been shown, taught, what The Lord has helped me walk through, learning how to let The Lord sit with me in the dark places/the painful places, seeing The Lord walk others through the hard places and the sweet freedom that awaits us when we do.
Jesus wants to walk with us through our pain, our resentments, our anger, our shame, our guilt, our fears, and our confusion. He wants to help us tear down the walls we build up against Him, ourselves, and other people.
What I’ve learned is that He WILL and He WANTS TO, but he’s an absolute gentleman. He will only go into these dark and fearful places with us IF we ask Him to.
What I also learned is what can happen if we don’t.
We think we can handle things like unforgiveness but we can’t. We are unable to compartmentalize and this resentment /anger/unforgiveness spreads like cancer.
GOD WILL NEVER BLESS OUR UNFORGIVENESS
*Forgiveness isn’t saying something is okay*
We have to continually forgive someone and let our emotions follow and eventually catch up.
We have to pray for those who have hurt us, which I know sounds excruciating and impossible but we aren’t meant to do this alone. When we let Jesus walk us through this we are saying “God, your sacrifice was enough, I forgive them and let them go.”
We cannot jump into fullness with The Lord if we’re hanging on to the past.
Jesus died for us. We already ARE FREE. When we resent others we are basically chaining ourselves and willingly walking into our own prison.
He loves us too much for us to do this to ourselves. He already gave us freedom. All we have to do is let Him into our hearts and that begins when we start the process of forgiving the ones we thought were unforgivable.
I wanted this to be the first blog I shared because it was one of the most transformative things I’ve experienced. These past 12 days these chains I’ve been carrying for far too long have been broken, rather God has given me the truth and strength to set them down. I’ve tasted a new freedom I’ve never known and that’s because I was able to sit with Jesus and revisit the dark nooks and crannies of my heart that I purposefully don’t revisit because the pain is too much. He’s shown me the fruit of what happens when I invite Him in to sit with me in these nooks and crannies and my friends this freedom is beautiful, unbelievable, and WORTH IT. So I share this with you and invite you to do the same. Sit in a quiet room and talk to Jesus, revisit those hard places, and ask Him to guide you in forgiveness. He will, He is Good. This isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight and it’s something I need to continually do with Him. The freedom that comes from this is good and I want more! Once we truly experience this then we can experience the fruits of the spirit and share this journey and joy with others, because FREE PEOPLE, FREE PEOPLE!!!!!
Blessings.
I would love to hear your stories of the freedom you find! Please share!
