Tag: Healing

History ignored will be repeated

History ignored will be repeated

If we chose to ignore the shameful, uncomfortable, ignorant, or criminal past, we place ourselves in a vacuum of future failure.  We need to acknowledge the past, ask the Lord, how we got ourselves into such a place, then ask Him to help us repent, change our belief systems and grow from the past mistakes.

On the other hand, reminding everyone of their mistakes over and over is just as dangerous.  It brings shame and anger alive and causes rifts and bitterness to flourish, where forgiveness and peace need to grow.

We choose both how we deal with our pasts and how we move on into our futures.  Will we learn what caused the problems in the first place?  Will we ask the hard questions that need godly answers?  Will we repent for our part in the problems, asking God and the offended to forgive us?

If we can face the shame and ask God to lead us out of the past failures, into a greater place of communication, caring for each other, getting rid of the selfishness of the “Me” generations, then perhaps our families, cities, and nations will start to mature and grow up into caring individuals looking out for each other.

This horrible blame game and finger-pointing needs to stop!  It is so counter-productive to human growth and maturity.  It is childish and very selfish.  Each person’s view of the past is different and only when we forgive each other, and chose to leave the past in the past, can we move on.

Father God, help our families, our cities, and nations to deal with the past with forgiveness, kindness and allow us to grow to care about each other in a new way.  Help us to look to You for guidance.  Heal our nations we pray in Jesus’ Name.

2Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Daniel 9:19

O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

Mar 11:25,26 TPT

“And whenever you stand praying, if you find that you carry something in your heart against another person, release him and forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also release you and forgive you of your faults.   But if you will not release forgiveness, don’t expect your Father in heaven to release you from your misdeeds.”

Luke 6:37 TPT

Jesus said, “Forsake the habit of criticizing and judging others, and then you will not be criticized and judged in return. Don’t look at others and pronounce them guilty, and you will not experience guilty accusations yourself. Forgive over and over and you will be forgiven over and over. ”

Luke 17:1-4 TPT

One day Jesus taught his disciples this: “Betrayals are inevitable, but great devastation will come to the one guilty of betraying others. It would be better for him to have a heavy boulder tied around his neck and be hurled into the deepest sea than to face the punishment of betraying one of my dear ones! So be alert to your brother’s condition, and if you see him going the wrong direction, cry out and correct him. If there is true repentance on his part, forgive him. No matter how many times in one day your brother sins against you and says, ‘I’m sorry; I am changing; forgive me,’ you need to forgive him each and every time.”

Matthew 5:43-48

“Your ancestors have also been taught ‘Love your neighbors and hate the one who hates you.’ However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them.   For that will reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. He is kind to all by bringing the sunrise to warm and rainfall to refresh whether a person does what is good or evil.  What reward do you deserve if you only love the loveable? Don’t even the tax collectors do that?   How are you any different from others if you limit your kindness only to your friends? Don’t even the ungodly do that?    Since you are children of a perfect Father in heaven, you are to be perfect like him.”

 

Testimony of God’s Faithfulness

God is faithful during every crisis of life

All of us go through crisis situations in our lifetime.  Some of them are short-lived and quickly dealt with while others are drawn out over weeks, months, and even years.  The year 2014 started a long one for me personally.  I had just spent over 3 years helping to take care of my beautiful mother who was failing slowly before our eyes.  After we lost her in 2013, my life became even more stressful trying to deal with her loss, all the legal details involved with settling an estate.  Her estate was not large by any means, but the legal paperwork is just as complicated.

I had been getting mammograms yearly for several years.  At that time women were told to do so as a routine preventative measure.  The routine is getting the mammogram, then wait for them to give you the okay to leave or get a sonogram for a closer exam.  This time, I was given a sonogram and the technician seemed to take a long time looking at one area.  I still was not really concerned as I had benign lumps for years.  She showed me this one area and told me it was a cancerous lump.  She left to go get the doctor for further discussion.

When she walked out of that darkened room, it suddenly was filled with fear.  Fear so tangible, I could feel it.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit and all these years of learning the Bible.  Out of my spirit into my mouth came Scripture after Scripture declaring God’s provision, refusing fear and terror.  When the doctor came in she confirmed what the technician has shared with me.  She laid out the next steps required to deal with the cancer growing in my breast.  Astonishingly, I had no fear or anxiety left.  The Holy Spirit and the Word of God had banished it from the room.  I was able to hold a rational conversation and gather the needed information to do the follow-up required.

What followed was 2 surgeries, 35 radiation treatments, and 3 years of anti-cancer medications.  The journey was long and painful.  Many days of weariness never known before. Reactions to medicine to the point of near-death from one of them.  All during these trials, God was near.  I felt His presence over and over.  There were days I could hardly move due to the overwhelming tiredness that comes from radiation treatments.  I would be sitting there, knowing I needed to get up and prepare food to eat, yet so tired I could barely walk across the room.  Suddenly, a burst of energy would fill me, and knew someone was praying for me.  I would have a bill come due, with no money to pay it and the doorbell would ring and someone would bring me a check that covered the cost of the bill.  Over and over, the Lord stayed faithful to me and through me.  I willingly shared my testimony of His faithfulness to encourage others even during the trials.

Today, I am 5 years cancer-free.  The oncologist is only seeing me once a year just as a follow-up.  The victory was not instantaneous but it did happen.  I am sharing this for you all to realize and even recognize the Lord’s hand in your lives during a crisis.  Sometimes we are so inner focused we don’t see Him at work in our lives. The Scriptures that have sustained me are:

2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Philippians 4:19  (KJV)

19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 54:17  (KJV)

17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

1 Peter 2:24 (KJV)

24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

May you be blessed today.  May you see Jesus in every step of your life.  He is always near by the Holy Spirit.  He always loves and cares for you.  Let your faith arise in His ability to bring you through whatever crisis you are facing today.

Letting Go of If Onlys and Regrets

Letting go of if onlys and regrets

Our lives are filled with if only and regret events.  We are living in the results of the decisions we made in the past.  While most of them are good for us, there are some which cause great harm and loads of regrets. We tell ourselves, “If only I had not done …..” or “If only I had done ….”  The pain resulting in some of our past decisions lingers for a lifetime.

Choices are a free-will gift from God.  He created us with the right of choice.  We can choose to do good or evil.  We can choose to do a lot or a little in life.  Each choice has consequences, good or bad.  Even little children have regrets and if only situations.  A little hand reaching out to touch a hot stove, even though Mommy has told them not to touch it, soon brings regrets when little hands are burned and filled with pain.  The biggest issue is not the fact we have regrets and if only moments.  It is that we have to live with the consequences and learn from the mistakes we made in our choices.

As I get older, there are a lot of “I wish I had not done that” and “I wish I had done that” events in my life.  I wish I had been more adventurous in my younger years instead of being so reserved and afraid of making mistakes.  I also wish I had made wiser decisions over lots of past events.  The point is, I didn’t do either in some events from my past.  I am sure many of you can say the same.  It is the past and cannot be changed. I can make some new choices now on how to deal with those past regrets and if only moments.  I can choose to wallow in self-pity, punish myself for stupid mistakes, try to hide the past and never admit to anyone what I did, tell everyone all the time all the dumb things I did causing them to want to tell me, “GET OVER IT” Or I can choose to bring all that stuff to the Lord Jesus and let Him help me deal with it.

WHAT DOORS WILL WE CHOOSE TO OPEN?

The Bible has something to say about our past and how to deal with and how to pray about it.

Psalm 25:7 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.

Psalm 79:8 Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, For we have been brought very low.

Ecclesiastes 11:7-8  TLB Oh, how sweet the light of day, And how wonderful to live in the sunshine!  Even if you live a long time, don’t take a single day for granted.  Take delight in each light-filled hour, remembering that there will also be many dark days And that most of what comes your way is smoke.

Psalm 119:89-95 TLB 89 Forever, O Lord, your Word stands firm in heaven. 90-91 Your faithfulness extends to every generation, like the earth you created; it endures by your decree, for everything serves your plans.  92 I would have despaired and perished unless your laws had been my deepest delight. 93 I will never lay aside your laws, for you have used them to restore my joy and health. 94 I am yours! Save me! For I have tried to live according to your desires. 95 Though the wicked hide along the way to kill me, I will quietly keep my mind upon your promises.

LET US LOOK TO THE lORD for answers

Philippians 3:4-14 TLB 4  Yet if anyone ever had reason to hope that he could save himself, it would be I. If others could be saved by what they are, certainly I could! 5 For I went through the Jewish initiation ceremony when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish home that was a branch of the old original Benjamin family. So I was a real Jew if there ever was one! What’s more, I was a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to every Jewish law and custom. 6 And sincere? Yes, so much so that I greatly persecuted the Church; and I tried to obey every Jewish rule and regulation right down to the very last point.  7 But all these things that I once thought very worthwhile—now I’ve thrown them all away so that I can put my trust and hope in Christ alone. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have put aside all else, counting it worth less than nothing, in order that I can have Christ, 9 and become one with him, no longer counting on being saved by being good enough or by obeying God’s laws, but by trusting Christ to save me; for God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith—counting on Christ alone. 10 Now I have given up everything else—I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. 11 So whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead.  12 I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be.  13 No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.

No More Looking Back!

As we can see in these Scriptures, mistakes are a part of the human condition.  We all make foolish, selfish and ignorant mistakes in our lives.  Some are fairly easy to live through and go on with life, others have long lasting results.  But we can become like Paul, the Apostle, and put it all behind us.  We can choose to ask God to forgive us, and also the persons we wronged if need be.  We can learn from those past events and we can also forgive the person we were at the time.  It is so easy to judge from a more mature place in life.  We can see more clearly what should or should not have been done.  Yet, when we made those decisions a lot of things surrounding us were involved.  We may have panicked at a huge bill and charged everything instead of finding a way to earn more money for a season.  We may have been angry at our friend, husband, wife, child….and let loose the frustration on them, causing great pain.  The person we were at that time, made the decisions.  We can’t judge ourselves from today’s life experience.  We can only ask for forgiveness and forgive.

We may need to forgive someone who hurt us years ago and we still hold them in anger.  The only person who is hurting is usually us.  The person or persons may even be deceased, yet we still are in bitterness and regrets.  Painful past memories can be healed by the Lord Jesus.  We can release the past to where it belongs…in the past!  We cannot change it, we can only learn to live with it and go on.  So many people are crippled in their present lives because they cannot seem to forgive and forget the past.

Let us be like Paul the Apostle and choose to forget the past and press toward the future the Lord has personally designed for us.  Though some things we will never be able to accomplish, there are so many we can do!  We can have an exciting life following after the Lord.  What will you choose to do with your if onlys and regrets?  I pray you will be able to allow the Lord Jesus to heal them, forgive them and then forgive yourself and get ready for an exciting new life in Him.

ALLOW YOURSELF TO WALK FREE OF REGRETS

The Battle Is the Lord’s, but we are in the skirmishes.

The battles we fight are spiritual not physical though it seems like they are sometimes.  If we can put our trust in His Word, in the power of the Blood of Jesus and allow the Lord to do the behind-the-scenes part, the battle is shortened.  Our part is to declare what the Word of God says about the situation.  His part is to perform His Word.

A lot of us have been fighting a battle with sickness.  Some of us are struggling and fighting in our minds and flesh.  We are allowing worry and fear to attack our minds.  Our battle is in the mind.  The Word says in 2 Corintians 10:3-5;   “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

Sometimes we literally have to say to ourselves, “Stop thinking those thoughts.  They are not of God.”  Pulling down those thoughts that are contrary to what God says about the situation.  Choosing instead to lift up His Word and cling strongly to it.

Psalms 107:20 “ He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”

3 John 2 “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

Our prayer for you today is to allow the Word of God to fight the battle for you. Resist fear, worry and sickness in the Name of Jesus and allow Him to bring you sweet release in the Spirit of God.