Hurt?

Were you hurt in 2010? Or did you carry hurt into 2010? Still got it? Doesn’t that hurt feel heavy?  Do not underestimate the insidious, destructive effect that unresolved hurt and anger can have on every aspect of your life.  It’s like poison that swallows you.  It doesn’t do anything good to your face either.  Hurt shows no matter how big that smile might be.

Everyone has been wronged, offended, and sinned against at some point in life. How are we to respond when such offenses occur? Reading in The Word of God we learn that we are to forgive. Of course that can be easier said than done. (My personal little prayer, “Lord, please forgive them while I grow to it”) Ephesians 4:32 declares, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Similarly, Colossians 3:13 proclaims, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Is it possible to truly forgive all transgressions?

How do you forgive someone who physically abused you when you were a child?

How do you forgive someone who raped you or a family member?

How do you forgive someone who spread vicious and humiliating lies about you?

How do you forgive parents who put their own needs and egos way ahead of your basic emotional needs as a child?

How do you forgive a parent who left you when you were young?

How do you forgive someone who has sucked the joy out of your life through his or her negative, hypocritical, phony, lazy, selfish, and ill-tempered behavior over 20 years of marriage?

How do you forgive attacks on your children?

How do you forgive the unforgivable?

Maybe, sometimes, the hurt is so bad that the quality of your health and life will suffer for the rest of your life because you will always harbor some anger for the people who hurt you.

“When you haven't forgiven those who've hurt you, you turn your back against your future. When you do forgive, you start walking forward”.  Tyler Perry

String a pearl: Why do we forgive? Because we have been forgiven! It was revelation for me years ago in the midst of a tumultuous struggle when God made a clear impression on my heart. Jesus not only died for my sins but for those who have sinned against me.

Wait a minute! Stop the music!  It doesn’t get any bigger than that.  Jesus died for that person that sinned against me! There’s nothing more I can do but forgive.

Forgiveness is the perfume that the trampled flower

Casts back upon the foot that crushed it

God makes everything but unbreakable hearts. 

Let Him be the fragrance of Your love 

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Psalms 51:10

Happy New Year

                   Lyndi