As We Forgive we are forgiven
My dear sisters today I would like to share with you one of the things that can hinder our prayers to God.Something that is a 100 times worst than not being able to communicate with your loved ones during a catastrophe (earthquake/tsunami/war) especially when the phone lines are down-----
IT is "NOT BEING ABLE TO GET THROUGH TO GOD IN PRAYERS"
The unforgiving spirit within us can hinder our prayers to God
How painful it was
Unforgiveness started to grow and become rooted in my heart -- I call it a root of bitterness . I kept on saying this “But you don't understand! You don't know what he did,I eventually becomes uncontrollable. My anger and bitterness was not only channeled to the offending party, but becomes a fountain of bitterness that flowed in all directions.That's the saddest part of all.
I have been carrying bitterness for 22 years and finally I could not live in this prison any longer.I cried out to God to deliver me from this chains.I begged him to forgive me but he was asking me to forgive first.How could I forgive?
I cried out and said Lord I can't forgive but please help me to forgive..and the changes started taking place.I was shown every fault of mine and I could not believe that I could hurt so many people .I admitted each and every mistake and slowly I could feel his love flowing right through me.I was being forgiven and I stared to forgive.Oh how can explain the joy in my heart......
Imagine this scene from a courtroom trial in South Africa:
A frail black woman stands slowly to her feet. She is something over 70 years of age. Facing her from across the room are several white security police officers, one of whom, a Mr. Van der Broek, has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman's son and her husband some years before.
"It was indeed Mr. Van der Broek, it has been established, who had come to the woman's home a number of years back, taken her only child - a son, shot him at point -blank range and then burned the young man's body on a fire while he and his officers partied nearby.
"Several years later, Van der Broek and his cohorts had returned to take away her husband as well. For many months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then, almost two years after her husband's disappearance, the hate-filled Van der Broek came back to fetch the woman herself. How vividly she remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his swollen lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame were, "Father, forgive them..."
"And now the elderly widow woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confession offered by Mr. Van der Broek. A member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks, "So, what do you want now? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your loved ones??"
"I want three things," begins the old woman, calmly, but confidently. "I want first to be taken to the place where my husband's body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial." She pauses, then continues. "My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van der Broek to become my adopted son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me, so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining within me, for the rest of my years."
"And, finally," she says with tears welling in her eyes, "I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. Van der Broek in my arms, embrace him, and let him know that he is truly forgiven."
As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr. van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he has just heard, faints. And as he does, those in the courtroom, friends, family, neighbors -all victims of decades of oppression and injustice--begin to sing softly, but assuredly, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me...."
It's time, my friend, time to let go.Where do you need to extend forgiveness today? I'll give you a hint: it's in that area where you resist forgiveness the most. It's time to let the grace and love of God work in you and through you. Perhaps you need to forgive your husband . Perhaps it is your mother or someone who molested you when you were a child. Maybe you need to forgive yourself. It's time to make that decision to let go. It's time to extend our hand, dare a smile, build a bridge.
It's not easy. It's not natural. But when we forgive we find that a prisoner has been set free. And that prisoner, is us.
Imagine this scene from a courtroom trial in South Africa:
A frail black woman stands slowly to her feet. She is something over 70 years of age. Facing her from across the room are several white security police officers, one of whom, a Mr. Van der Broek, has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman's son and her husband some years before.
"It was indeed Mr. Van der Broek, it has been established, who had come to the woman's home a number of years back, taken her only child - a son, shot him at point -blank range and then burned the young man's body on a fire while he and his officers partied nearby.
"Several years later, Van der Broek and his cohorts had returned to take away her husband as well. For many months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then, almost two years after her husband's disappearance, the hate-filled Van der Broek came back to fetch the woman herself. How vividly she remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his swollen lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame were, "Father, forgive them..."
"And now the elderly widow woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confession offered by Mr. Van der Broek. A member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks, "So, what do you want now? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your loved ones??"
"I want three things," begins the old woman, calmly, but confidently. "I want first to be taken to the place where my husband's body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial." She pauses, then continues. "My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van der Broek to become my adopted son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me, so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining within me, for the rest of my years."
"And, finally," she says with tears welling in her eyes, "I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. Van der Broek in my arms, embrace him, and let him know that he is truly forgiven."
As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr. van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he has just heard, faints. And as he does, those in the courtroom, friends, family, neighbors -all victims of decades of oppression and injustice--begin to sing softly, but assuredly, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me...."
It's time, my friend, time to let go.Where do you need to extend forgiveness today? I'll give you a hint: it's in that area where you resist forgiveness the most. It's time to let the grace and love of God work in you and through you. Perhaps you need to forgive your husband . Perhaps it is your mother or someone who molested you when you were a child. Maybe you need to forgive yourself. It's time to make that decision to let go. It's time to extend our hand, dare a smile, build a bridge.
It's not easy. It's not natural. But when we forgive we find that a prisoner has been set free. And that prisoner, is us.
If you are ready to let go and feel the love of God in your life again please follow these steps.
- Invite God to enter your heart, body, mind and spirit, and everyone and everything you judged in the first five minutes you now forgive, pray for and bless. Regardless of what you think they did or did not do to you, for the next five minutes forgive, pray for and bless them.
- Do this with every centimeter of your heart, with every ounce of your body, with all the love in your soul. Ask the holy spirit and God to assist you.
- Give God all your pain, anger and sadness and let it dissolve in His light.
- Ask God to fill all those places within your heart that have been hurt with absolute forgiveness, kindness and love toward the brothers and sisters you once chose to judge.
- Remember, you are participating in this invitation to assist you in understanding and acknowledging the power of your thoughts, both positive and negative. Once you have forgiven your brothers and sisters, once you have given and seen all the pain and anger dissolving in God's light, begin to pray for those you once judged.
- With all your heart and soul, pray for their well-being. Pray for their health, pray for their present and future. With all your heart and soul ask God to help you hold them.
- Feel yourself holding your brother or sister and feel God holding you both. Ask and invite God to assist you from now on in seeing your brother and sister through His heart.
- Ask God to completely retrain your thought system from one based on judgment and pain to one based on forgiveness and love.
- Ask God to assist you in carrying this new thought system with you wherever you go and to let it touch whomever you see.
Beth
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