Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon
your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are
sealed unto the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour,
and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Heb 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of
God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you,
and thereby many be defiled;
It
is inevitable in this life that someone is going to hurt us. It may be a
sibling, a friend, a parent, a child, spouse, relative, boss, fellow employee,
or a complete stranger.
Sometimes
the hurt is so great or may be a repeated hurt that we feel like running away
and crawling into a cave where no one can get to us again. Or we may do just the opposite. We may turn away from God and return to living an
ungodly life just to spite Him, and the people who may have hurt us.
Sometimes
it helps to talk to the person or people who hurt us. Many times they are not
even aware of our side of the story. Then there are other times we can do nothing about it
except forgive and let it go.
I
can think back to my childhood and early teen life. I had many hurts then, and I felt inferior to others
and that I wasn't much of a success at anything. Others always seemed to be and do better than me, so I
finally gave up trying to be good. At that time I turned to drinking and drugs. I got myself into such a mess, only God could pull me
out of it.
I
remember how He began to pursue me and then how He began to heal me by
explaining the motives of my heart. He also showed me that the ones I had blamed for
causing me such pain had no intention of hurting me, they had just been
battling with their own struggles in life. What a difference when we get our eyes off ourselves,
and truly see the plight of others as they stumble along with their own heavy
burdens!
Most
of all, God showed me who I am and how He created me to be. He gave me a new purpose and He pulled me out of the
pit and made me feel that I was loved and worth a great deal to Him. This changed my life. I learned about Satan and that he is the one who
creates division, steals our peace, hope and joy, and paints a negative picture
of ourselves and others.
God
builds us up, while Satan tears us down. I learned about the tongue and what I say about
others, if not spoken in love, is buying into the lies of Satan who hopes we
will hate one another rather than love one another.
The love of God is the most powerful
force in existence.
It
cost Jesus His life so that we could live. It saves us from the tyranny of self and selfishness, and
it brings us into the presence of God, where we are transformed from misery to
joy. It is the place of
sweet and meaningful fellowship with Him and other believers. It heals us fully and completely and it is based on
truth. It is what makes us
different from all other religions. It causes us to reach above and beyond ourselves in
our willing service to God and others. It melts the most hardened of hearts. It can stop all fights and wars. It has nothing to do with our own goodness, it is the
very nature of God which He gives us when we make Him Lord of our life.
Love
covers a multitude of sins: 1Pe
4:8 Above all, keep
loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. ESV
And
God operates in love.
1Jn 2:5 but whoever keeps his word, in
him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:
ESV
There is great joy when we get
along with one another.
If
we have hatred and bitterness, we are in the camp and company of Satan (see
Eph. 4:26-27 above).
Things
will not go well until we forgive. Even if we don't feel like it, we need to take a step
and be willing to forgive.
God
will help us.
If
you are struggling today with bitterness and deep pain from being hurt and
rejected, take the first step. Pray and ask God for healing and be willing to
forgive. Perhaps He will have
you go beyond that and offer a gift to the one who hurt you. In any case, He will take care of you, lift your heavy
burden, and you will be blessed beyond measure.
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