Just Think About It…

What does this mean to you?

Over the years, for myself, it has changed. But I think I finally get it and understand it and am doing it.

Tell me, what does this mean to you?

When You Realize How Blessed You Are

There isn’t much I don’t appreciate these days. So many of my friends; whom I consider family, have cancer, health issues, financial issues, relationship issues, and other things that can be overwhelming. Each person feels things differently and so there is no way to compare each persons pain but there are so many who are suffering.

I am not without my own pain but I have gotten back to being in His Word. You see I had fallen away from my daily time with Christ. That had caused me to focus on what was going wrong in my life instead of focusing on what is good, what was going right, what was a blessing in my life. I wasn’t seeing anything but bad.

Six days ago, I got back into my daily time. Six days ago I started to open up my Bible app every day and read the verse of the day, read three plans I had stopped and feeling closer to God. One day three, I started to feel content again. I started to look at the positive things. I started to see my blessings again.

One the second day of doing the getting into the devotions I read Psalm 143 and it spoke to me in so many ways.

Lord, here my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.
Do not bring your servant into judgment,
for no one living is righteous before you.
The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me swell in the darkness
like those long dead.
So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed.
I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.
I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.

Answer me quickly, Lord;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
Rescue me from my enemies, Lord,
for I hide myself in you.
Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

For your name’s sake, Lord, Preserve my life;
in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.
In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;
destroy all my foes,
for I am your servant.

It isn’t that my problems went away. It isn’t that my pain disappeared. It is that my focus shifted. I was looking to God when I started to focus on the issues that are in my life. I would start to pray when the anxiety would creep up.

I started to focus on my spiritual warfare again.

Today, the verse of the day is Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Not only is it the verse of the day, it was in my Devotional about Fighting an Invisible Enemy. It really made me think.

Every day I should be putting my spiritual armor on. Ephesians 6:11 says “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. And I need to be praying in the Spirit on ever occasion with all of my prayers and requests.

I am not perfect and my life is not perfect. But I am finding joy in the little things. I am turning to Christ when I am struggling and overwhelmed. I am giving it over to Him because I know that even during the hard time, He has me and He will help me grow and make it through.

Yesterday we celebrated my parents birthday’s. They were both born in August only a year and a few days apart. This allows us at the end of each summer to have one more big family get together. We are able to enjoy food, swimming, company and family.

Yesterday’s get together also brought a lot of laughter with it. It has been a long time since our family has laughed and had this much fun. We enjoy each other. We support each other. We laugh with each other. And yesterday had a huge cupcake fight.

No one was spared. It started with me, getting Bella in the face. Which lead to her having a meltdown. I finally got her into the house to clean her face off and here comes my mom with a smurf face and teeth. I step outside and see that there is neon pink, green, blue and yellow every where.

When I say every where, I mean on just about every person, the dog, the ground, the deck and chairs. I sat down in a chair and was covered in frosting very quickly. My brother and sister in law escaped for a little bit. They ran into the house, pulled the door shut and locked the door while their youngest daughter threw a cupcake at them and hit the window.

I then encouraged my nieces to grab a cupcake and run around the house and go in through an unlocked door to get them. They did and it was a great moment.

Here is the biggest thing for me: had I not gotten into His Word days before, had I not gotten my focus off of the negative I would not have been able to enjoy this past Sunday. I would have been focusing on the negative things. I would not have had a good time with my family like I was able to.

I would not have enjoyed the food. I would not have enjoyed the kids laughing. I would not have enjoyed the stressful moments. I would not have been able to laugh myself. I would not have been able to just enjoy the last fun moments of summer with the amazing family God has given to me.

If you are struggling, I encourage you to build your relationship with God. Speak to Him every day. Pray in the Spirit when you are struggle. Laugh with Him. Cry with Him.

You are His child and He loves you!

The Power of Transformation

Today I had the privilege of sitting down with someone who has had a massive transformation over the last twelve months. This is a person who has been in my life for the past ten years. This is the person that brought Jack and I together. I am not even sure if he knew that until this past weekend.

He gave up his old ways because the Holy Spirit had entered into his heart. Not only did He enter into his heart, He began to whisper to him. He was placing people, situations, and places around him that were planting seeds in him.

I got to listen to his story today. I got to listen to his vision for the future today. I was lucky enough to be able to see something I had never before seen and it was amazing.

I was also able to share my story or part of my story with him. I am the first to admit even my husband doesn’t know my whole story. It is something I am working on. I would not be who I am today without my story. Still admitting all of it, isn’t always the easiest thing to do.

Why is it when we meet someone new we are afraid to admit who we were? Maybe you still struggle with some of the same sins but you are an ever changing child of God. If you are working on you, if you are developing your relationship with Christ, what are you afraid of to admit who you were?

Give Him the glory! You can not change without Him moving in your life! You can not transform without Him moving in your life! Your transformation is powerful because He allowed you to be transformed! He is using you in His story, for His glory!

Maybe you don’t have an awesome transformation story. Maybe you grew up in the church. Maybe you followed all the rules. Maybe you never had that ah-ha moment where you woke up and God moved in you. To me those stories are just as moving
because tragedy, mental health problems,  and life still happens!

Those who have grown up and not had a big life change still struggle. There is still hardships and to see how they walk through those moments give hope. To someone like me. Someone who grew up in the church and walked away and created a mess for her life.

There is hope that my life, even though it is full of struggle and hardships, I can look at those who have always gone to God and I have a role model. I have someone I can call and say, “How would you deal with this?” or “What Bible book or chapter or verse would you read?” or “Please pray for me.”

Transformation is a powerful thing. Sharing your story is a powerful thing. Being vulnerable enough to show others what you have become from who you were, is a powerful thing.

I have recently learned the power of writing your story out. Write out a short, quick story to share with people who are not certain. Make it two minutes or less. Write out a longer version to share with those who are dipping their toes in the water. This is your cliff notes version. Give them your highlights. Write out your full story. We are not talking about your life story here. We are talking about what you were, what woke you up, where God had called you and where you are going with Him. This here is for those who are in some where in their own transformation.

Have you ever realized that once your growth starts, if you feed it, it never stops. I have talked about how important it is to spend time with your friend, Jesus every day is before. If He was a friend who was physically here, would you ignore them for days, weeks, months and expect that your friendship would be rock solid? I know I wouldn’t. I know with my best friends, if I do not connected with them at least once a day I feel as if I am missing something.

So for me personally, why would I skip over the most important relationship in my life? I have done that before and I hate it. I grow distant from Him. I don’t feel Him. I don’t hear Him. I feel like I have this hole in my heart that nothing can fill up. I have excess anxiety, worry, fears, bad choices and an overall uneasiness. It isn’t any fun for me. I am an irritable mess.

I decided over a year ago now I didn’t want to get back to being that person. There are still times I fail miserably at it but now it doesn’t take me as long to realize what is off, what is wrong and what is missing. The best part is He is always waiting right where I left Him. He is standing there with His arms out waiting for me to come running back.

How awesome is that? I can walk away a million times and He stops and waits for me to come back!

Today, I really realized the power of transformation. I can’t tell you how many times I hit rock bottom before I figured out what was going wrong. I can’t tell you how many times I made horrific life choices. I can tell you that what I felt like was a big gaping hole in my life that I was constantly trying to fill with the wrong things was the Holy Spirit working in me.

She was biding Her time. She was waiting on me. She was always in me and always with me. She just waited for me to die to myself to come to Her, to come home to Christ, to walk through the doors to God.

That cycle has happened far more than I would like to admit but it is my story. It is who I am. It is who has brought me to this point in my life. It is the story He has allowed me to go through for His glory.

The person I met with this morning, he has a similar story. To see a baby believer come into their relationship with Jesus was uplifting. To see the fire in him was inspiring. I will be the first to admit, it is easy to become complacent, to let that fire fade into embers.

That isn’t what we are called to though. We do not have to do big things to transform others. We are called to share our love, our story, and to plant seeds by being Jesus with skin on here and now.

The power of transformation is an amazing thing. Allowing your story to be told for His glory is an amazing thing! Do not be ashamed of who you were and what you have gone through because He is using you in big ways and you may not even know it.

Team Ricker Update May 16

There has been another update on Brison Ricker.

5/16/17 update on Brison 

Over the weekend his pain continued even though we had stopped the oral meds. So yesterday per Dr. Burzynski’s suggestion we brought him in for an emergency MRI of his brain and spine. The MRI of his brain showed stable there has been no change, however the MRI of his spine showed progression. The resident doctor in the ER thought this progression is what was causing his pain, however this same doctor did not even know how to read me the MRI.  

#rickerstrong #teambrison #powerofprayer #NEGU #noonefightsalone

Please go over to their gofundme page to read the full update!

This family has faith like I haven’t seen, ever. I have had family who has been in the ICU and I assumed then, they prayed. But I don’t know. 

I pray for others. I write prayers down. One thing I don’t do often or well, praying out loud. 

This family I do believe prays out loud. I believe they pray with each other daily. 

Please, go to this families gofundme page and share their posts to get their story out there. They need help financially and if you can’t help them in that way, maybe someone you share with can help them. Small actions can make huge impacts! So please go visit, share and also please pray! 

FerVent Prayer Strategy Ten

Each week from September to May I attend a Bible study at my church. It is a woman’s bible study and I enjoy everything about it! I have had the privlege of learning from each of these ladies and become friends with so many of them. It has been such a perfect place for me to have growth with other Christian woman.

The current book is called FerVent by Priscilla Shirer. We are almost to the end of the book. I can say for certain this will be a book I use again and again! She has an amazing way of writing as if she is right there talking to you! Not only that, but I do believe prayer is needed in our lives. And now I don’t just believe prayer is needed but FerVent prayer is needed! Below you will find the summary of strategy 10 from the book.

Hello Ladies,
We talked about Strategy 10 this past week, Your Relationships.

I have a hard time with this chapter. Not because it doesn’t make sense or the concept of prayer for it doesn’t make sense, but because of my family and friends.

I live with friendly fire on a regular basis. I have a lot of people in my life who practice a different religion than I do. I have come to believe a much different view. That having a religion is much different than being a Christian.

I was driving to church and some of the things that have been said in my life smacked me upside the head. I was not on earth when Christ was. I am not one of those who God spoke to and spoke through to create the Bible. I am not one of the people God chose to pick the books of the Bible. I am not one of those people that God picked to be a pastor or Father or preacher. I am one of the people God picked to love.

If I am telling others there is only one real Bible. If I am telling others there is only one real religion. If I am telling others who to live their religious life. I have placed myself in the position of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit! That is not who I am and it is not who I will ever be.

I was not placed here to judge what other Christians do. I was placed here to love others where they are. I was placed here to be Jesus with skin on. I was seriously hit over the head with, “Those things are judging others”. Telling someone your way is the only way, judgment. I have not done that, in a long time, but long ago I did. Why He brought it to my head I didn’t get, until listening to others.

We serve a truly amazing God. Why isn’t it possible that He has chosen to have all these different types of religion to reach each person the way they need to be reached?

Our job is to love others in our lives and to show them His light. Our job is to pray for others in our lives and to show them His light. Our job is not to judge others in our lives because that is friendly fire.

Can you imagine if we really were all united. All of the churches, religions, Christians truly praying for His will to be done! Could you imagine the peace that would be had in each city and state with all of that unity?

It is time we step away from the devil and the things he wants to use us for. It is time we step away from the gossip, the jealousy, the bitterness, the arrogance and the self-ambition. It is time for us to focus on those things and see them for what they are, a relationship breaker and the devil worming his way into our lives. 

It is time for us to dig in and get into FerVent prayer each time the devil tries to wiggle his way in to our relationships and the church. It is time for us to escort him out of the building and out of our lives because he is no longer welcome.

Our relationships with those in our lives is vital. Our relationships show others what our insides are about. Are we letting our lives be run by Christ and are we trying to follow Him or are we consumed with the bad things satan has for us.

Next week we will talk about Amen (great read if you haven’t read it yet) and we get to hear Susan talk about the armor of God!

Blessings to each of you!
Amy

If you read the Bible there is no mention of religions in it. It talks about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, love, giving, helping, salvation, redemption, and being ready for Jesus to come again. So how anyone can say with such certainty that they know the religion they follow is the right one, the only one and the one Christ wants you to follow bothers me. 

So what do I do about that? I pray about it. It isn’t for me to judge others who feel that way. It isn’t for me to be stating those things either.

I love Each and every one of you! I do not care if you are purple, green, white, brown, pink, yellow or grey. I do not care if you are straight, gay, transsexual, bisexual, atheists, Muslim, Buddhist, or Christian. I was put here to love you. I was put here to help you. I was put here to pray for you. 

Where do you stand? Do you have issue with anything like this? 

What Does Anger Do?

The Struggle Is Real With The Flesh

Today is Friday and since February 10, 2017 that means I am volunteering at church. I am in with the children who are sixth grade and above. We do have a couple  who are old enough to be in the sixth grade but are in fifth. We let them join us and so far we haven’t had any issues with that. 

Tonight we talked about our belief’s, values and how the affect the choices we make in life. The very last thing on the Bible study sheet was Romans 7:15. So often I feel as if Romans 7 is the story of my life. I want to be better. I want to do what is right and yet, the flesh controls and the sin wins. 

I don’t want the sin to win anymore. I fight against it. I tell myself over and over that I am not going to do that anymore. And then I do it anyway. 

I am sure I am not the only one. Things as simple as: I am done eating candy, I am done over stuffing myself, I am not going to use the credit card anymore, I am not going to eat out, I am going to work out, I am going to keep the house clean and the list goes on.

There is never one thing and everyone’s sins are different and unique to them. We all have struggles of the flesh. We all have things we never want to do again, and we all have our times of failure. What is your biggest struggle? Do you get angry at yourself when you do it again and again and again? 

The devil puts temptations in front of us. He knows where we are weak and where we struggle. He wants us to fail so we feel the guilt, the anger with ourself. He wants us to feel as if we just can’t get anything right. He wants to put that burden on you! He wants you to forget that God loves you anyway, that God knew you were going to fall, stumble, and do it over and over. He wants you to believe his truth and not God’s truth. 

Gods truth never changes. His truth tells us that we will be tempted. His truth tells us that He is faithful. His truth tells us that He will always provide a way out when we are tempted. 

So then why do we continue to fall into sin? Why do we continue to watch tv shows or movies we know we should not? Why do we continue to overeat? Why do we sit in our house instead of working out? Why do we choose to do what our gut tells us not to do and then just deal with the guilt?

Most of us when we are standing within reach of the choice we need to make, forget to turn to God. I know when I am standing there about to do something I know I should not do, when I am standing there about to make the same mistake for the millionth time, in the back of my head I tell myself this is the last time, I swear I won’t do it again, just one more. How many, “one more times” can a single person have? 

Tonight while at youth group, I wondered why God has me here. I don’t know how to pray, and yet I had to pray tonight. I don’t know the Bible as well as I would like. I don’t know how to explain the Bible verses when they ask. Here I was tonight leading Bible study to a group of kids feeling as if I was should just quit. I know God lead me here, I am doing as He called me to do and it is really overwhelming. It isn’t just me who is a leader. I truly thank God for that one. Still tonight I was leading. 

I know the thoughts in my head that are making me want to run are not from God. God is good. God is the encourager. God is love. My fears, my thoughts, my anxieties are not good, are accusing me and they are from the evil one. What is the devil trying to scare me from? What good thing is he trying to get me to run from? There has to be something.

Here is the big thing, tonight I came home and did something I have been working on. It was a rough night. It was a great Bible study discussion, for the most part. Then the one child who has a way of controlling the emotional status of the group made it clear he doesn’t like being there, he doesn’t like the group, he doesn’t like any of it basically. We wrap everything up, the kids head off for the night, I get home with my youngesters and I open a bag of candy. 

I ate my emotions. Not only did I eat my emotions, I ate them with candy I can’t stand. I specifically bought this candy for the group tonight so I would not touch it. I came home after feeling like I just am not doing the right things for the group. That I just keep on messing up everything. That I should not be the one talking to parents. That I should not be the one talking to the kids individually. That I should not be the one leading the talk sheets. I let myself be consumed with my emotions, with my insecurities and I ate them with the nasty candy I put into me. 

I know I’m supposed to be there though. God called me to this group. I know this. It was very clear before I prayed. It was even more clear after I prayed. Everyone I talked to confirmed it. So I can say with confidence that God called me to this group of teens. Yet I take a night like tonight, where we are talking about Paul and how he struggled with his sin and I come home do the same thing. Paul struggled with it and he was with Jesus. What chance do I have to be stronger? 

It really isn’t about being a stronger person than whomever came before you, is standing next to you or will come after you. We are all living in the flesh. We all have our struggles, we all have the evil one trying to take us down his path instead of God’s path, and we all have the same choices. Follow the flesh and sin, follow the flesh and turn to God and pray to Him and see the way out, and we also have the fact we know we have struggles, we know the evil one is tempting us because we do believe in God and his only objective is to take us to his side, we focus on our relationship with Christ by speaking to and praying to Him and we also accept that no matter how much we try to overcome sin, there are going to be times when we fall flat on our face. We need to get up, brush off, ask for forgiveness for the seventy-seventh time and we get back at it. All of this being accomplished with Christ by our side.

There is only one perfect person who ever walked this earth. Jesus was sent here for me and for you. He was human and He dealt with every feeling and emotion you and I ever will. He was tempted by the evil one many times. He was pushed and shoved and He blew up with anger. He was beaten, He cried, He loved, He asked that the Father forgive us. Then He died on the cross, spilling His blood to satisfy Gods wrath for all of our sins. All so that when God looks at me, He sees Jesus and His perfect, sinless, face. 

When you love someone, you want a relationship with them. You want to be with them. You want to do things to please them. Our relationship with God should be the same as it would be with anyone here on earth. Just because you are forgiven doesn’t mean you can just keep on doing wrong. It means you strive to do the correct things. It means you want to follow His Word. He knows we are going to fall and make mistakes. We know we are going to fall and make mistakes.

It isn’t a free pass for us. It is something we need to keep tucked deep within ourself. The evil one is sneaky and he wants us to forget. He wants us to feel that guilt and shame. He wants us angry and hurt with our own self and with others. He doesn’t want us to feel the love and acceptance from God. He does not want us to feel the forgiveness. 

Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow is going to be with me praying for a certain child in our teen group. Tomorrow is going to be a candy free day. Tomorrow I am going to wake up and start fresh and know that all I have been feeling today, all of my thoughts and choices, they are not from God. I made a bad choice tonight, I knew it was a bad choice and I did it anyway. I am forgiven.

It may not seem like a big deal to some but for a person who struggles with emotional eating and have been working to overcome it, tonight was a bad choice. I do have guilt right now. I do have shame that I did it. I am going to go to bed though, praying, asking for forgiveness and asking for more strength and a more prominent exit plan from the temptation next time.

What do you struggle with? Do you know that you are truly forgiven? Do you know that God loves you sin and all? 

Your Past Does Not Define You

In my Wednesday morning Bible study we are working through a book titled FerVent by Priscilla Shirer. She was in the movie War Room and she played the character Elizabeth. She wrote this book after doing the movie and I will forever be thankful. 

This Strategy 5 was actually a couple weeks ago now. I wasn’t going to post about it. Yes I am open and honest about my past on here, in bits and pieces. I didn’t put this up though because it gives a brief but scary description of my past. It gives you just enough to understand that I have a past and it wasn’t good, but doesn’t give many details. 

So here is what I wrote to the amazing women in my Bible study.

Hello Ladies,
Today we talked about Strategy 5, “Your Past”. The past is such a tricky thing to deal with. It is often used to put stumbling blocks in our path. 

The problem with the past is that it is always right behind you! You could lay down in bed tonight and start thinking about something you said, did, or didn’t do 30 seconds before laying down all the way to 30 years before you laid down. The way the devil works, the way his demons work, they see what you do, they choose things that bother you and they exploit them. 

I have a very unchristian past. I grew up catholic, so it isn’t that I didn’t grow up in the church. I went to Our Lady of Consolation from kindergarten to fifth grade. During that time, I had struggles, but it was in sixth grade when it all really came out.

I was not good enough. I was not smart enough. I was not cute enough. I was not friendly enough. I just was not enough. That is where it ALL went wrong! 

By the time I was in seventh grade I was making awful choices. By the time I hit high school, I was living with the devil himself (or so it felt like). Her exit 59 was my Rockford, Belmont, Grand Rapids, Sunfield and Greenville and beyond. I look back and can’t think of a single good choice, wise choice, unharmful choice that I was making at this point in my life.

It wasn’t just then it went beyond the teen years. It went into my young adulthood. Funny thing is I always felt like I was missing something. I was trying to fill this big empty hole in my life and I no matter what I did, I just could not fill it. 
Love didn’t fill it. Children didn’t fill it. Marriage didn’t fill it. Smoking cigarettes didn’t fill it. Drinking didn’t fill it. Friends didn’t fill it. Owning a home didn’t fill it. Even going back to my old church didn’t fill it. So I kept on searching and making unwise choices. 
Finally I came into NCC’s drive back in 2004. God was calling me home. I listened for the first time in a long time. This is when the past really started to hit me, the guilt, the shame, the choices I had been making and justifying year after year after year. 

Satan used people to bring me down. He used me against myself. He used my children. He is just really good at being a snake and slithering in where he has no business being. 

God is good all the time. God is love all the time. God is our encourager. The devil is negative. The devil is hate. The devil is the accuser. 

We do need prayer. We do need to have our strategic prayer. We also I personally think, need to memorize some verses to use against the devil. When he starts to use our past against us, we need to hit back, with his worse nightmare – our Savior, Our God, the Word, the Rock! 

When we turn our lives over to Christ, we are made new! Our past sins, our current sins and our future sins are as white as snow. Guilt and shame brought on by the devil need to take a hike, and we need to arm ourselves to kick him to the curb. 
Pray to God about your past. Ask Him who you can help with your past sins. Use those things for good and not for the shame and guilt satan wants them to be used for. 

Each of you when you share, amaze me. We all have our own journey and yet one thing bonds us all: Christ. Each of you is beautiful inside and out. Each of you has a gift inside of you waiting to be shared. Keep on growing in strategic prayer and allowing God to heal each of you! 

Next week, we tackle our fears! 

God Bless Each Of You!
Amy 

What was it that made me decide to share this today? My past actually. An old friend I reached out to. 

Our past does not define who we are. It is a part of us, yes. We can’t ever go back and erase it. We can’t go back and change what happened. It isn’t on a computer where we can hit delete and start over. It is out past. 

It does help shape who we are, but it does not have to define who we are. God sent His son here for me, for you, for my children, and yours. He came here so that I am made new once I come to Him.

This doesn’t mean I can go ahead and do whatever because I am forgiven. This doesn’t mean I will be perfect and never sin again. What it means is that I am striving to be love, light, and His. I do my best not to sin, but it still happens. When you love someone, you want to do what is best for your relationship and this is a relationship. I want to do what makes Christ happy, what is correct, what is good and what shows that I have Christ in me.

It doesn’t always happen, but that is what I want. 

Today I invited the past back in. I reached out to see how this friend was doing. The best thing about today, I found out he found Jesus! It has been about 10 years now for him and it shows. You can feel Christ flowing through him. Even with me just reading his words. It was amazing, it was fabulous. 

I didn’t know what would happen when I reached out. He could have told me to jump off a bridge. He could have been the same person he was years ago. He could have ignored me all together. Instead, we talked, I said sorry for any pain I may have caused. Now I have this peace, this peace that God gave me. 

Your past does not have to define you. It can and does shape you in your life but it does not have to define your future. If you were writing a book, you as the author have control of the beginning, the middle and the end. In life your parents typically control your beginning, you control the middle and the end. 

For a long time, I was stuck in a spot in my life where I felt I was what everyone said I was. I was stuck at about 14 years old in my mind. When people looked at me, spoke to me, looked down at my choices, I felt as if I was a 14 year old child. It took a lot for me to realize I was in control with Christ at my side and I was in control of my future. My past helped shape who I was but it was no longer going to define who I was.

Where in your story are you? Because if you do not like where your past has you at currently, write yourself a different ending! Your past does not have to define your future! 

What Does Forgiveness Mean? Part Two

We see a lot in the Bible about forgiveness. If we want to be forgiven, we are to forgive. Yet we are told that we are saved by grace, we have been redeemed by Christ dying on the cross, we are washed clean of our sins. So then why does Christ tell us we must forgive all the time?

I have come to realize for me when I am angry with someone, when I am upset with someone, when I am not forgiving it harms me. They have no clue. Their days are not ruined and harmed by what they did (most of the time). When I am thinking about what someone did to me, to my children, to my parents, to my friends, to my family I become bitter. My heart becomes hardened. I become angry, short tempered, and irritated to those who are around me. 

The biggest issue with all of those things on is that nine out of ten times I am not around the person who has done the wrong. So I am taking it out on those I love. I am taking it out on myself. Then it really hit me as I was really thinking about the verses I had been reading. Those who come and repent I have zero issues forgiving, it is forgiving those who do not ask for it. The forgiveness for those who don’t come back is for ME. 

I need to forgive for me. What good does it do to be angry at someone who is not around? What good does it do to be angry at someone who is around you? When you are upset or angry and the person is near, a lot of times you can talk to them and work it out (if there is good communication). However when you are angry at someone who is not around, you think about it, you fester on it, you just become bitter, mean and negative. That isn’t of God!

God is love. God is light. God is your protector, a positive influence on your life. The devil is the darkness. He is your accuser, and when you focus on him and all that is wrong, you turn negative. 

You see that forgiveness we are told to do isn’t for the other person. It is because God doesn’t want the accuser to be residing near us, in us. He wants us to be a positive person so others can see Him through you! Especially if those people know what you have gone through, know what you were angry about and see you come through the others side a positive person!

What is even better is that Christ was here on earth, He became human, He knows these feelings and so He understands what it takes to forgive. He knows that you can not just say I am forgiving, especially over certain things and it just goes away. He knows it takes time. He knows you may need to forgive a hundred times before you actually feel the forgiveness. He doesn’t want you to give up working on it.

There is something else that I have learned on my journey of forgiveness. You can not forgive a person and still be angry about what they have done. Forgiveness is not forgetting what has happened. Forgiveness is not holding it over their head. Forgiveness is not holding it in your heart. Forgiveness also does not mean putting yourself back in the same situation. Sometimes you have to forgive but walk away. Sometimes you have to walk away and then forgive.

I have done some things in my life that have needed forgiveness. I probably have not asked everyone I have wronged for that. I have had a lot of things done to me in life that have hurt me. Emotional scars are hard to work though. It is a must though. Your past affects your present, if you do not work through it. Even if you don’t have a person asking for you to forgive them, you have to find a way to forgive.

There are times when I think I have forgiven the past and then something happens and it rears its ugly head again. It can be very frustrating. Then I need to take a step back and really think about what is bothering me. Is it the past that I have not forgiven or is it something new that is bringing angry out or is it a combination of the past and the present. Is there something new going on that is similar to something from the past. 

Forgiveness is for you. Forgiveness is for you and your relationship with God. Forgiveness is for you and your relationship with those who are in your life daily. Forgiveness is hard and it is work. Forgiveness does not happen overnight but it is all worth it. 

Another side of forgiveness is about you being able to say you are sorry. We can be angry and upset at ourself for not saying sorry. Then we have that inner self beating of unforgiveness inside.

What is forgiveness? It is so that you are not filled with hatred. It is so that you can shine and show others God’s light. It is for your own personal joy and happiness. Forgiveness is also about asking others to forgive, it is about being able to say you are sorry. 

Forgiveness is a necessity in this world, in our lives. 

Are you needing to forgive someone? Maybe the person you need to forgive is yourself?

What Does Forgiveness Mean?

I have been doing a lot of thinking about forgiveness. Over the next couple of weeks I will be spending a lot of time with people I have “forgiven”. What does it actually mean though? 

I have looked up a lot of verses about forgiveness. I will dig deeper soon. 

In the meantime here are the verses. 

Can’t wait to dig deeper! Where do you stand with forgiveness? Is there anyone you need to forgive?