Today, dear reader, I am going to share the following, which I received by email from Joanne Lowe. The copyright is hers for this piece. If you like the way that she writes then I recommend you to visit her via this link or else email her direct. WE HAVE A CHOICE
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
Colossians 3: 15 (King James Version)
Our Scripture verse tells us that we have a choice. We can make the choice to let the peace of God rule in our hearts and be thankful for what He has done for us or we can choose to allow bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred, criticism, jealousy, envy and sarcasm rule our hearts. We will only have peace in our hearts as we allow Jesus to remove all of these negative and sinful things that hurt Him and bring shame to Him.
We don’t have to live a life that is full of turmoil. We can make the choice to forgive people and let the peace of God rule in our hearts. It is very difficult for us to forgive the people who have hurt us. In fact, it is impossible for us to forgive them from our hearts in our own strength. We are still in the flesh and it takes the power of Jesus working in our hearts to bring us to the point where we can honestly say to people from our hearts “I forgive you.”
I tried for over sixty years to forgive someone. I told this person that I forgave him but I really hadn’t forgiven him because I allowed all of the bitterness, all of the hurt, all if the resentment and all of the hatred for this person to remain in my heart. I finally realized why I didn’t have peace. It was because I did not want to forgive this person. I was honest with God about it. He already knew that I didn’t want to forgive this person but I needed to admit it and confess it to God.
I told God that I was not willing to forgive this person that hurt me but that I was willing for Him to make me willing to forgive this person. Sometimes we have to start with the basics. It didn’t happen overnight but the more I yielded my heart to Him, the more I really did want to forgive this person that had hurt me so deeply. The day came when I could honestly say to this person from my heart “I forgive you. Please forgive me for not forgiving you.”
You have a choice. You can allow unforgiveness, criticism, sarcasm, jealousy, envy, hatred, resentment and bitterness to rule your heart or you can allow the peace of God to rule your heart. What is your choice? Will you allow the peace of God to rule your heart or will you continue to allow Satan to rule your heart?
We don’t have to live a life that is full of turmoil. We can make the choice to forgive people and let the peace of God rule in our hearts. It is very difficult for us to forgive the people who have hurt us. In fact, it is impossible for us to forgive them from our hearts in our own strength. We are still in the flesh and it takes the power of Jesus working in our hearts to bring us to the point where we can honestly say to people from our hearts “I forgive you.”
I tried for over sixty years to forgive someone. I told this person that I forgave him but I really hadn’t forgiven him because I allowed all of the bitterness, all of the hurt, all if the resentment and all of the hatred for this person to remain in my heart. I finally realized why I didn’t have peace. It was because I did not want to forgive this person. I was honest with God about it. He already knew that I didn’t want to forgive this person but I needed to admit it and confess it to God.
I told God that I was not willing to forgive this person that hurt me but that I was willing for Him to make me willing to forgive this person. Sometimes we have to start with the basics. It didn’t happen overnight but the more I yielded my heart to Him, the more I really did want to forgive this person that had hurt me so deeply. The day came when I could honestly say to this person from my heart “I forgive you. Please forgive me for not forgiving you.”
You have a choice. You can allow unforgiveness, criticism, sarcasm, jealousy, envy, hatred, resentment and bitterness to rule your heart or you can allow the peace of God to rule your heart. What is your choice? Will you allow the peace of God to rule your heart or will you continue to allow Satan to rule your heart?
1 comment:
We mistakenly believe that we are punishing people when we withhold our forgiveness from them. We don't punish anyone but ourselves! Unforgiveness seperates us from God and punishes us every moment we think about the situation or situations that occured that led to our bitterness. Way to go on letting it go, Colin.
I have one that I have tried again and again to forgive, but even though I have tried to forgive, I still feel resentment when I see them, as I am in a position of seeing them fairly frequently. I am going to follow your advise and change my prayer to asking God to make me willing to forgive this person. Will you include this in your prayers for me as well?
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