“Asleep, While Walking!”

My daughter (14) had a really good illustration and I want to share it with you.

Asleep!

“Our everyday lives are full of biblical illustrations.  Just recently, my eldest brother, mom, and I went for an afternoon hike up our mountain.  It is a fairly difficult hike.  And to make it worse there were a lot of dead and dry pine needles on the ground.  You would take a step and nearly start to slide down the hill.  It took a lot of effort to make it up.

I had just stopped to rest and I began to think.   I remember taking hikes life this when I was little.  When we would hike I would start out hiking along beside my parents but when I felt tired or just couldn’t make it any longer, my dad would pick me up and put me on his shoulders.  It was great to ride up high, I could see so much more.

Most of the time when I would ride on my dad’s shoulders I would fall asleep.  At this point, I was no long grueling up some hill or down some path. I could just relax.  As I had been walking it seemed that we would never get there and it took forever.  But as I rode on my father’s shoulders I had no fear or worry about getting to our destination, I had trust in my father that I would get there.  And the amazing part was when I would wake up from sleeping we would be there and it seemed such a short time.

Another thing that I was remembering is when we would be coming home from visiting someone.  I would always fall asleep on our way home.  I never sat there and worried about falling asleep, wondering how I would get in the house once we were home.   But I knew I could trust my father to carry me in the house once we got there.  And most of the time when I did wake up I was already in my bed.  I never knew how I got there except by the faith that I had in my father to accomplish it.

What about God?

These experiences made me start to think about God and how I need to have that kind of trust in Him.  No matter what situation that I am in He is always there.  I can trust Him through the grueling trials or whatever comes my way.  And if I can learn to trust Him as I did my earthly father, the next thing I will know is I will be on the other side of my trial or hardship and it will seem like it has been a short time.  My question will be, ‘How did I make it through so quickly?’  I will not know how I have gotten through the trials except by faith in God that He has accomplished what He has promised.”

—Rebekah

 

Get to know Him!

How can we learn to trust God as my daughter trusted her dad?  We have to come to the point that we don’t fear God.  And the kind of fear I am talking about is the fear that He won’t take care of us.  We have to come to the point that we trust Him fully and there is only one way.  In order for us to trust anyone, we have to get to know him or her.  We have to know that God has our best interest in mind and the only way that this can happen is to spend time in prayer and in His Word.

You may be saying, “That is what you always say.”  And you are right.  There is no other answer in life.  We have to have an intimate relationship with Him.  And the devil does everything in his power to keep us from spending time with God.  It doesn’t matter what he can distract us with, he will distract.  Often times he uses good things because we seem to be able to justify it more.

It may seem at times, as we go through difficulties that God is not there.  But what we need to realize is that when we are going through our most difficult times He is carrying us, and we can rest in Him.  At those times we have to claim His promises and not go by how we feel.

This is a poem that I have always loved.  It really brings it home.

 

FOOTPRINTS

“One night a man had a dream.

He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.

For each scene, he noticed two sets of

footprints in the sand: one belonging

to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,

he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of

his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very

lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he

questioned the LORD about it:

“LORD, you said that once I decided to follow

you, you’d walk with me all the way.

But I have noticed that during the most

troublesome times in my life,

there is only one set of footprints.

I don’t understand why when

I needed you most you would leave me.”

The LORD replied:

“My son, my precious child,

I love you and I would never leave you.

During your times of trial and suffering,

when you see only one set of footprints,

it was then that I carried you.”

Mary Stevenson

 

Dear Father,

Thank You that You are always there for us.  I pray that we will realize our need to stay so connected with You that You will carry us.  Forgive us for getting caught up with the things of this world and neglecting time with You.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Give yourself to God each day and trust His leading.

Love you all!

Do you remember being carried by your dad, whether you were hiking or being brought in from the car after a trip?  What lesson can you draw from it?

 

 

 

“40 Years?!!”

Life is short!

When you think about the average of lifespan on this earth it is a very short time.  The older I get the more I realize it.  The average is what?  Around 80 years, give or take a few.  There are so many factors but we know that it is short.  And the bottom line is that it can be even shorter than that.  We never know when we walk out the door in the morning if we are coming home.  So this day could be our last no matter what your age, 18…40…50, you name it.

Accident

It came to my mind more vividly one day as I was driving home from town.  At one of the lights, I was going through, there had been a recent accident.  One car had been really smashed on the driver’s side.  It appeared to me that they were working on cutting him out.  I was driving and wanting to make sure I didn’t cause another accident so I couldn’t take in what might have happened.  It appeared that he was alive and I pray that his injuries and all that were involved will heal quickly.

But it made me think.  All it takes is one accident and your life can be over or changed forever.  And the big question is, am I ready?  My judgment has been decided if I die and have allowed God to keep my heart connected to His.  I know that if I am permanently damaged that God will give me the strength for as I need it.  But if I am not staying closely connected with Him now it will be harder to stay connected through difficult times.  We need to stay focused on Christ and not lose that focus.

Distractions

There can be so many distractions that can keep us from keeping our eyes on our Savior and staying connected with Him.  There are many that I could address here but I am going to tackle one that I believe is a big one.

Taking our eyes off of Jesus and placing it on others distracts us.  It is so easy to get caught up in looking at others and seeing their wrongs.  As we point the finger or just have negative thoughts about their choices it draws our attention away from where it should be.  We are responsible for ourselves and no one else.  Now some may be saying, “We are responsible for others’ salvation.”  There is truth to that but where our focus is, determines whether we can help others.

When we keep our focus our Jesus and allow Him to work in our lives we then, and only then can we properly witness to others.  We need to have a Christ-like love for others and we cannot do that without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  We are the seed planters and the Holy Spirit is the One that makes it grow.  Somehow we think that we have to make it happen.  We plant seeds and love them even if they don’t accept what we have shared with them.  God is working with each person and He is the One that knows the right timing for each individual.  God doesn’t always bring change overnight.  He brings them through step by step.

How much time?

So how much time will it take for someone to see the truths of God’s Word?  I think one thing that we do is we forget what our own journey has been like.  We want to bring people to our level of knowledge and commitment overnight but how long did it take us to get to where we are.  And another thing, we should be realizing that we have a long ways to go and we have not arrived.  The Lord keeps growing us and we will be growing and learning how to walk the walk until He comes.  We need to give others the freedom to grow.

This reminds me of the story of Moses.  How long did it take for Moses to unlearn the ways of Egypt and to have such a walk with God that he would not waver?  God worked with him for 40 years to get him where He could use him to bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt.  This shows God’s patience and He knows what is needed in someone’s life to bring change.  God has perfect timing.  He is never late, rarely early but always on time.

We are only the seed planters and the only way those seeds can fall and maybe come to fruition is if we do it in love and let the Lord take it from there. We need to get out of His way and let Him work.   And as He works we continue to love and be there for the person through whatever difficulty, without condemnation.  This is a hard thing to do and it cannot be done in our own strength.

Human Nature

Our human nature tends to want people to be where we are in our spiritual journey and if they are not we tend to want to condemn and be critical.   We need God’s help in this area of our lives.  As we look at people we need to see them through the eyes of Christ, who came and died for them.  We can only do this as we stay connected with God.  This makes me realize how much we need to be in prayer and in the Word each and every day.  And spending time each day reading and/or thinking about the life of Christ, especially those last scenes.  If we can understand what He has done for us we can have more compassion for others.  We also need to reflect on where He has brought us from.  How long did it take for us?  We tend to forget how patient the Lord has been with us.  We need to have that same patience with others.

Dear Father,

Help us as we see others to see You as You hung bleeding on the cross for them.  Give us the ability to be earnest, broken and humbled as our petitions ascend to You for wisdom that we may have success in saving, not only our own souls but the souls of others as well.  We can only help in the saving of others as we stay surrendered to You and as we allow You to work through us so we can reflect You.

Forgive us where we have fallen short in reflecting You and work now in our lives that we can perfectly reflect Your character so that we can go home.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Commit today to not say anything negative about another person.  And commit to continue planting seeds in others lives, loving them, and not shunning them because their choices are not what you think they should be.

Love you all.

What thoughts have gone through your mind when you have seen an accident?  What lessons have you drawn?  Share below.

 

“Trapped!!”

Trapped!

Have you ever felt trapped?  Maybe you feel trapped in an unhealthy marriage, friendship, family, or even your job.  What can make the difference?  We can’t always get out of situations that we are in but we can change how it feels.

I am reminded of something that just happened recently at my parents.  My mom called because a Bluebird had managed to make its way down their chimney into their stove.  Dad, who has a really bad shake, needed some help to get it out.  Mom is no help when it comes to things like this.  As a matter of fact, we told her to go outside while we did it.  She gets so freaked out.

My daughter (14) and I went over to help.  We took a plastic bag and taped it around the door and then opened the door with the bag.  We wanted to try to draw the bird into the bag.  But because the bag had to be black, in order to be big enough to go around the door, there was really no light to draw him.

So my daughter used the bag to go in and try to grab him.  The interesting part was that he did not try to fly all over to get away.  We thought that maybe he was injured or near death because he was not trying to get away.  It took a little bit because she could not see what she was doing, but she finally was able to get him.

Anticipation

We carefully closed the door and untapped the bag, closing it carefully in case the bird would get out of my daughter’s hand.  I was anticipating that we would have to maybe care for a bird that was injured or not well.

When we got outside and opened the bag and immediately he flew to the nearest tree.  As he flew out of the bag he started to sing.  Then he landed on a tree branch and sat there and sang and sang and sang.  We felt as if he was thanking us for helping him.  We realized that he had felt that we were trying to help him and that was why he cooperated with us.  And then to have him thank us with his singing was such a delight.

It made me long for heaven and the connection we will be able to have with the animals.  What it will be like to swim with the dolphins, pet and lay with the big lion, ride a horse without a saddle or reins, and even be able to have any bird sit on your finger or shoulder and sing and sing and sing.

Analogy

The trapped bird reminded me of how some of us feel trapped.  It doesn’t matter what it is.  It could be a debt hanging over your head, maybe you are trapped in yourself and can’t seem to reach out to others, but whatever, whenever, or where ever you feel trapped there is a solution.  Your situation may not change immediately but how you feel about it can.

Many times we are in the situations we are because of our own choices.  We may be in a bad marriage because we did not seek or even listen to the Lord or Godly counsel.  It also could be that we married before we gave our heart to the Lord and our spouse did not give their heart to God as we did.  Most of the time debt comes from our own bad choices and we have trapped ourselves in the “stove” of debt.  But even in our bad choices, there is a Helper.

When that bird went down the chimney she didn’t just happen to stumble in.  It has a special spark arrestor on the chimney so the bird would have had to actually go into it to fall down the chimney.  There are many times that we do the same thing.  We are walking along in life and we see a job, person, things that we feel we need or want and we don’t investigate thoroughly before we make the choice to dive in headfirst.  And then afterward, too late, we realize it was a big mistake, just like the bird realized too late.

There are other times that we are walking along and it is not something really obvious and we fall in.  But the solution for both is still the same.

I like to call it S U R R E N D E R

 

  • Start your day with God
  • Utter words in prayer
  • Read your Bible
  • Recite verses to memory
  • Encourage others
  • No criticizing words
  • Direct praise to God
  • End your day with God
  • Rest in God’s promises

 

The only way we can have success in our lives is to Start our day with God in Uttering words in prayer, Reading His Word, and Reciting His Word to memory.  When we have His Word in our hearts He can draw it to our memories in the day when we need encouragement or help with any temptation or decision.  Encouraging others always helps to get our minds off of ourselves.  And when we are speaking No words of criticism about people around us or even about ourselves, it draws us closer to God and away from that depressing feeling of being trapped.  It doesn’t help the other person or us when we criticize.  We should be Directing our praise to God each day for what He has done for us.  It may take some time for us to become grateful because we have been so negative but it can happen and what joy it brings.  Make sure to End your day with God.  Recite a verse you are memorizing and pray.  And then Rest in His promises.  If you do these things you will be able to sing a song of praise to God for His help of drawing you out of the “stove” (pit) of sin.

Excited

What I am most excited about is to be totally rescued from the “stove”.  Soon Jesus is coming to take us home, to take us out of this “stove” (world) of sin and sorrow.  When He comes and takes us to heaven that will be the ultimate joy.

I can just imagine myself singing as I ascend up to meet Him in the air, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

And then when I am actually in the city the joy will be so overwhelming I will burst out with singing praises to the One that has made it possible for me to be there.  I will sing my gratitude of praise to Jesus, “…. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” Revelation 5:12.   What a glorious day that will be.  And I don’t know about you but I don’t want the things of this world to destroy that moment.  I want to surrender all my life to Jesus.

Dear Father,

“Take my life, and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;

Take my hands, and let them move

At the impulse of Thy love;

At the impulse of Thy love;

 

Take my feet, and let them be

Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing

Always, only, for my King;

Always, only, for my King;

 

Take my lips, and let them be

Filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold:

Not a mite would I withhold;

Not a mite would I withhold.

 

Take my will, and make it Thine,

It shall be no longer mine;

Take my heart, it is Thine own,

It shall be Thy royal throne.

It shall be Thy royal throne.

 

Take my love, my Lord, I pour

At Thy feet its treasure store;

Take myself, and I will be,

Ever, only, all for Thee.

Ever, only, all for Thee.”

— Frances Ridley Havergal

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Surrender all to Jesus today.  He will help make your path straight and bring you joy and peace no matter what situation you face.

Love you all.

Do you have a nature story you can tell?  I love to hear nature stories.  Share what you learned from your experience.

 

“I Will Never Speak to You Again!!!”

Have you ever…

Have you ever said or done something that you wish you could take back?  And whomever you said or did it to has made it very clear that they want nothing to do with you?  Or maybe someone has said or done something to you and you have let them know that you’re done.  You don’t want anything more to do with them.

This can also happen if a person feels like another person is not what they should be.  They don’t act like me or think the way I do so they must be mean or evil.  I want to feel comfortable with the person that I am with so I will shun anyone that takes me out of my comfort zone.  This doesn’t always come with words it can just be an obvious shunning.

Sad

Since we have had two recent deaths in my family this has hit close to home.  In both cases, we spent time with family, some of which we have not seen in years.  But one thing stood out is the division within the family.  Someone said or did something I didn’t like so, therefore, I do not want any more to do with them.  Or their lifestyle or how they think about things is different than me so I am just going to write them off.  The sad part is that some of these people claim to be Christians.

And what makes me even sadder is the fact that this takes place within the Christian church as well.  I see people that are struggling spiritually and others shun them because they don’t fit their criteria.  And what happens eventually to the ones that are struggling?  They leave the church and a lot of them give up Christianity altogether.  Why would they want to be a Christian?  They have gotten a false picture of what Christianity is all about through people who claim to be Christians.  But the reality is, if we are not being like Christ we are not Christians.  So what constitutes a true Christian?

Story

I want to share a story I recently read as an example of a true Christian. This story took place during the genocide in Rwanda.

“‘I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.’ (John 10:9–11)

Several years after my family returned from mission service in Africa, I was working in the in Portland, Oregon. The genocide in Rwanda had taken place about four years before this. When we heard about it, we felt sick. We had been to Rwanda. We thought it was an amazing country and had many Christian friends there.

One day a visitor came to my office. Her name was Adele, and I noticed that she had a big scar on her forehead. Adele had just come from Rwanda to visit her daughter in the United States. She wanted to tell me her story.

Adele had been married to a pastor in Rwanda. When the genocide started, she, her son, and her husband ran to the church with many other church members, thinking they would be protected there. Similar attacks, but on a much smaller scale, had happened years before, and at that time the people had fled to the churches for safety. As the members were praying inside the church, thugs came and surrounded the building.

‘You have to come out!’ they yelled to the people inside.

They asked for the pastor, Adele’s husband, so he went out. ‘We’re going to kill you!’ they said.

‘Can I pray for you first?’ he asked.

They agreed, and he prayed for them. Then they took a machete and dealt him a deadly blow to the head. In a rain of terror, the machetes and other weapons began swinging upon the defenseless church members.

Adele looked over and saw her son raise his hand to wave goodbye to his mother. Just then, his arm was cut off. Moments later, he was hit and killed. All of a sudden, Adele went unconscious. She was hit in the head, and that is why she had the terrible scar.

Three days passed, and someone who was walking by saw a little movement among the piles of decaying bodies. The person went over, touched Adele’s body, and found that it was still warm. She was still alive!

He picked her up, put her in a little Toyota pickup, and took her to the dispensary. While she was recovering at this little hospital, she had a dream. In the dream, she was in heaven. Jesus spoke to her and said, ‘Look and see.’

She looked and saw her son and husband. Jesus said, ‘It’s going to be all right—you’re going to see your family in heaven.’

That assurance gave her such courage and hope. ‘It’s the only way I survived all this,’ she told me later.

Adele got well and returned home. About four years later, she was at the marketplace in her village. Looking down toward the end of the vendors’ tables, she saw a young man with long, matted hair. He had been hiding out in the jungle. As she looked at him carefully, she recognized him as a young man who her husband had baptized—the same young man who had killed her son!

Adele walked up to him, and he began to tremble. He thought, of course, that she had been killed in the genocide. ‘What are you going to do to me?’ he quivered. People were starting to turn around to look.

All Adele had to say was, ‘You killed my son,’ and they would have killed him right there. Instead, she said, ‘You come with me now.’ Trembling, the young man followed her to her house. ‘What are you going to do to me?’ he asked again.

‘Just sit down,’ Adele said.

She got some water and began to wash him and cut his hair and clean him up. She gave him some food. Then she took some of her son’s clothes and said, ‘Put these on.’

‘What are you going to do to me?’ the young man repeated, almost frantic.

With tears in her eyes, Adele said, ‘I have no one, and you have no one. You have killed my son, so now you must become my son.’

Then they had prayer together, and they wept together. About six months later, the young man was put in prison for killing other people. Every week Adele would go to see this young man in prison and take him food and clothes.

I have since been to Rwanda and visited Adele. She has told her story at my meetings there. It is an amazing story. Adele is a living example of the greatest miracle of all—the miracle of forgiveness. 

Through faith we receive the grace of God; but faith is not our Saviour. It earns nothing. It is the hand by which we lay hold upon Christ, and appropriate His merits, the remedy for sin. And we cannot even repent without the aid of the Spirit of God. The Scripture says of Christ, ‘Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.’ Acts 5:31. Repentance comes from Christ as truly as does pardon. (DA 175)”

— Elder Duane McKey

Forgive

This is an amazing story to me and really shows us the power of forgiveness.  This is not something that we can accomplish through our own strength.  It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us that we can accomplish this.  Probably a lot of us, after reading this story, have realized how small our trials are.  It can make us wonder why we have not forgiven.

One of the reasons that we find it so difficult to forgive is pride.  We feel that we have a right to feel the way that we do so we keep not forgiving.  We can think, “If I forgive them they aren’t going to change.”  It has nothing to do with them changing, it all has to do with us.  As it says in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”.  God does not forgive us if we do not forgive. (See Matthew 6 9-13)  We can’t edit His prayer to our liking.

It makes it even more clear in Matthew 6:14 & 15, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

We even deny that we have not forgiven.  We say we have forgiven but then we shun them.  This is not true forgiveness.  Does Christ shun us?  And as Christians, we need to be like Christ.

What makes me even sadder is what will happen within the Christian church.  People shun people because they do not think as they think, which is really a part of forgiving.  Their thoughts are that if you are a Christian you should be doing this, this and this.  And because you are not doing those things they sometimes politely, but others times not so politely, ignore you.  You suddenly are no longer their friend.  They may reason that they are trying to protect themselves from false but the reality is they are not being like Christ.

If we think a person is doing something that will keep them out of heaven should we shun them for fear of contamination?  The answer is a clear no.  We need to be their friend and be a living example while reflecting Christ.  Love them and when they see a reflection of Christ in our lives they will want what we have.  But if they only see a critical spirit they will run the other direction as fast as possible.  A critical spirit does not draw to God and is not of God.

There is something very important to remember.  The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, they were all doing the right things.  They were all good Christians, even the foolish virgins.  Many scholars today, which I agree, believe that the oil in the parable represents the Holy Spirit.  As I see it we can do all the right things but still be lost.   If we are not doing them with the power of the Holy Spirit working through us and we are just doing them on our own we are like the foolish virgins.  We are out of oil (The Holy Spirit).  And we are not any better off than the person we are critical of because they don’t do the things that we are, which to me is unforgiveness.

If we really grasp the meaning of all this, we will be on our knees praying for others and loving them instead of pointing fingers.  In our hearts, we will be forgiving them and being a living example of Christ-likeness.

But how can I…

The reality is we cannot forgive and be a Godly witness, without judging and pointing fingers unless we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

  • Prayer

Prayer is the key that unlocks heaven for us. We need to spend much time in prayer.  In order for God to hear us, we need to make sure that we do not have any iniquity (sin) in our lives.  Whether it is thoughts or actions.  “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” (Psalms 66:18).  So the first thing we need to do is confess before God specifically anything that we have done that has been displeasing to Him.  We may not even know what it is we have done.  Maybe we have forgotten or we are not aware of some things we are doing that are displeasing to Him.  We don’t need to worry.  We can ask Him to show us and He will reveal to us anything we need to confess.

As we come to God in confession He will forgive.  Then we are able to ask anything according to His will and He will hear and answer.  “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14,15).  This is such a great promise.

Now we know that we can ask for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so that God’s will can be worked out in our lives.  “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”  (See Luke 11:9-13)

We know that it is His will that we forgive others and that we have a love for one another.  So we can ask God to give us forgiveness through the power of the Holy Spirit.  And we can ask for His love to flow through us.  “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).  We need to power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this in our lives.

  • God’s Word

We need to spend time in God’s Word.  And we need to do more than just read the surface.  We can be on a schedule of reading the Bible through in a year but are we really getting something out of it.  Take the Word verse by verse and don’t move on until you understand what you are reading and how you can apply it to your life.

  • Memorize Scripture Verses

Memorizing Scripture verses, for when those times of temptation or discouragement come, can help you through.  I recently heard someone share about reading through the book of Psalms.  A lot of what is in Psalms are prayers.  The suggestion was to read a chapter a day or less splitting the longer ones into two or three days.  Choose a marker color for promises and as you read underline the ones that speak to you as a promise.  This may be different for each person.  Then when you are in a time of prayer you can claim those promises.  Start putting those promises to memory so when you are in need of prayer, no matter who you’re with or where you are, you have a verse to claim.

Conclusion

As I said earlier my heart aches.  We have but a short time upon this earth whether we die at the average age of 80 or the Lord comes.  Life is way to short to not forgive and love.  Others may not forgive or love us but it all starts with each one of us.  We have to look at ourselves and allow the Lord to change us.  And as we are changed there is a higher chance that those we love will also change.  But God gives everyone the freedom of choice to change or not to change and we have to have that same kind of love that God has.

The thing that is great about the forgiveness and love that God works in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, it brings us happiness.  It gives us a freedom that is so amazing.  The stress of holding on to unforgiveness is a heavyweight and when it is gone, what a relief.

Dear Father,

We need the power of Your Holy Spirit.  As we come to You with a heart that is open to Your forgiveness and Your will we ask for Your leading in our lives.  We ask You to give us Your Holy Spirit.  Give us forgiveness and love for others that only You can give.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Come to God today confessing and then asking for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so that you can have the power to forgive and love others.

Love you all.

Have you had an unforgiving spirit that the Lord has helped you overcome?  Share the results below.