Hi everyone.  Hope you’re having a peaceful evening.

A night sky can be simultaneously utterly truth-rattling and deeply settling with a resonance that will remind you — He is there.  When you’re completely alone with God, be prepared for a pit in your stomach, a lump in your throat, or a calm peace into the night when in the quiet and stillness . . . you feel, you know He is God.

Share this with a friend who is quieting down their mind for a thoughtful inward reflection.

Do you need to muster the courage to forgive and let it go?  We received wise words this weekend about what it takes to heal a spiritual wound, how we can’t pick and choose who we unify with, and why it’s time to stop judging others.

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I Missed It.

We got you.  We’re all going to experience hurt from a downfall, condition, or brother or sister.  Healing is a process that takes time, but we have to be willing to go through it.

Most of us take wound healing for granted.  If you get a small cut, you may clean and cover it with a bandage, and move on with your life.  Yet under that bandage, the body must orchestrate a complex cascade of events designed to heal wounds, big and small.

Healing spiritual wounds requires a process, too.

Walk Me Through What Happens.

First, you have to quiet the carnal mind.  You cannot receive healing as long as your mind is raging and with all the clamor (Ephesians 4:31) and noise going on in your head.  Well, they shouldn’t have done that to me.  It will all come back around.  Shhh.

Next, lose the fun-house mirrors.

That’s Crazy.

Right.  Keep in mind our image of ourselves is distorted without truth.  We think we’re doing okay.  We look smaller in ourselves, or maybe Christ appears larger in our lives than is the reality.  To not have a distorted view, look into the laver, let your conscience pull your heart to see where you really are, and constantly be in the Word.

Reflections of self-delusion.  Beware of deceiving ourselves.  We hide, we deny, we don’t admit that we are at fault for our problems.  It’s been ingrained in us since the Garden to assign blame.

Blame stops the healing process.

Tell Me.

As long as you live in that wound, you will have no peace.  Guard against an unhealed wound.  It will cause a root of bitterness in your soul until, like Esau, you won’t change and you won’t forgive.

The Moment of Truth

Genesis 32:24 — Jacob was left alone.

Sometimes you need to be alone with God.  Just you and Him.

Jacob’s name meant to supplant or circumvent.  When he wrestled with God, his name was changed.  For healing and your life to be preserved, it requires change.  Jacob was willing to change.  Esau was given the same opportunity as Jacob, but would not change.

And Also . . . This

An injury is something that will not heal itself.  It requires God’s intervention.  If injuries are not healed, they become blemishes . . . which keep us here.

What Do You Mean By “Keep Us Here”?

Jeremiah 17.  An injury requires more of a process to heal, and we can’t heal it without God.  No matter if we’ve overcome everything else, that blemish will keep us from making it.

The Scripture Everybody is Talking About

Psalm 107: 20 — He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

He lacks no understanding of our condition.  When we hear a message, we’re hearing from heaven – these words will heal us.  Remember, we have an advantage.  Someone’s already been through it who can help us.  God has people.

It’s Time to Move On — The Power of Forgiveness

This sounds hard (it is) but it is the only answer and worth it.

Do you know that sometimes people don’t even know they hurt another person, and if we had our own way, we would have vengeance on people who didn’t even know they offended us?  When we let wounds fester, they become a cancer.

Whether someone has hurt you deliberately or inadvertently, forgive them.

Jesus forgave the Jews — not that they asked His forgiveness — they didn’t, but He forgave them anyway.  The men stoning Stephen didn’t ask his forgiveness, but he asked God to not hold their sin against them.

I’m Starting to See a Pattern Here.

Not understanding forgiveness can unleash troubling consequences.  We are not asked to forgive others.  We are required to forgive.  It’s not just the words we use, but the spirit we are living in.

Whatever judgement we meet out . . . WE WILL GET.

You won’t forgive others?  God won’t forgive your trespasses.

Have we forgotten how to forbear with one another in love?  Have we taken on the spirit of the world?

Forgiveness will make you think hard about life, death, and love.

Time for Mat Talk

When you need encouragement plus straight talk, here are three clues about forgiveness:

Clue One:  It will not bring back what was taken from you.  It will not restore what you lost, but it writes off the debt for that.  It forgives the debt from the transgressor . . . and the wound that is eating you alive.  God will help heal it after you forgive.

Luke 6 – love your enemies.  When you give forgiveness, you aren’t looking for anything in return.  Be kind to the unthankful and to the evil.

Clue Two:  No one ever feels like forgiving.  It is an act of will.  There is never “I can” or “I can’t” forgive.  There is only “I will” or “I won’t” forgive.

Not forgiving someone destroys your health and well-being.  Your whole life is affected.

Clue Three:  Refusing to forgive starts the death process.  If you don’t forgive someone, God will not forgive you, and you won’t make it.

We want God’s true forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:34).  Lay every weight of sin aside.  Don’t leave this message here (church), but take it to work and other places.  Forgive the right way . . . let it go.

And . . . Here’s Where We All Breathe a Big Sigh of Relief.  Phew.

When we hear messages or when we read the scriptures — make it personal.  We cannot afford to just be here.  We need to be fully present, hearing and applying the words, and putting them to work in our lives daily.

When we live these words, we will overcome.

We will make it.