Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
As we journey along God’s path for our lives today I felt it necessary to encourage us to tackle each day differently than the day before. For a few days now God has been dealing with me in the area of forgiveness. He showed me that forgiveness is an area sensitive to most of us.
In the area of forgiveness I challenge each of us to press the “reset” button in our minds, hearts and souls. Now I know you must be thinking that you don’t have a “reset” button, but you do. It’s not a button that you can see or touch, it’s simply changing your ways within. After you press “reset”, the next step would be to change your outlook on your situations.
The easiest way to do so is to seek God through prayer. When we pray it’s a time to converse with God. It’s a time to praise and confess. It’s a time to intercede, release and receive. It’s a time to repent and reconcile. The list goes on and on.
Through it all prayer is a time where you can be released, replenished, refreshed, renewed, and “reset”, just to name a few.
If we think about where we want to be in life today and compare it to where we are; we will see that there is a disconnection somewhere for most of us. If we start to think about how we became disconnected with our goals, dreams, or desires we would begin to point fingers at others and even ourselves.
That’s why it’s extremely important that we reconcile the existing matters in our lives today, in order to press forward in fulfilling our purpose in life. We need to seek God for forgiveness in order to forgive others and ourselves as well.
This week I have been working on one of my books “Birthing the Promise: It’s Time to P.U.S.H.”. In this book I have compiled my life long journey into different chapters as it relates to my growing pains. I aligned every experience in each chapter with God’s Word and how it has helped me along the way, especially in the area of forgiveness.
This year is my year to give birth to my promise. I believe it’s still time for you to do the same.
You see nothing we experience in life is experienced alone. We can identify most of our situations with things that have taken place with biblical characters. We also may be by ourselves going through trials and tribulations, but at the same time, in another location someone else is experiencing or has experienced a similar situation. We have to change our way of thinking, feeling and doing to align with God’s will and way for our lives.
We always seem to beat ourselves up about the very things that are out of our control and pay little to no attention to the things within our control. We often try to accomplish so much for ourselves to prove something to others and especially ourselves to feed our ego, but in the end we have no real success if we don’t choose to include God and do it His way.
In last week’s blog “Right the Wrong” we examined the book of Jonah. We went through each chapter and identified Jonah’s charge from God with some of the things we are faced with today. We saw how Jonah fled God and attempted to go in another direction.
We learned that no matter how far he thought he had gotten away by going in another direction, God was still in control. You see when we ignore God and do our own thing; it just blows up in our face. We may be happy now, but it won’t last for long. We will never truly be satisfied being stuck in our ways and doing things outside of the purpose in which we were created.
Every decision we make in life impacts others in some way. We learned from Jonah that when he didn’t obey, he threatened the lives of the sailors. When he did obey he changed the lives of the people in Nineveh to reconcile with God.
It’s time we decide to step forward in a new direction and reconcile our matters with Him as well.
It wasn’t until Jonah asked God for forgiveness and reconciled the matter with Him that God allowed Jonah to use his “reset” button. Once Jonah cried out to God, his journey was restarted. He took the necessary steps to start again and fulfill God’s plan for his life.
You and I still have time to fulfill God’s plan for our lives. As long as we are alive and able, we can turn our situations around!
Most of us have dealt with people who have hurt us, lied on us, cheated on us, abused us, etc. We have dealt with so many people who have smiled in our faces and talked behind our backs. We have dealt with people who have stabbed us in the backs and threw us under the bus.
We have also done those very things to people. So I am honest enough with myself to say I am a sinner and I am not perfect. I have done wrong to many people in my life and I am at fault just as much as anyone else.
So we must also seek forgiveness from others. We have to learn to take ownership of our actions and reap the consequences and forgive ourselves too.
We deal with people in the home, workplace, at school and even in the church who pushes our buttons and try to get the best of us, but we have to learn to forgive them daily and not allow them to have a hold over us any longer.
Today is our day to press “reset” and release all of those situations to God through prayer and restart His journey for our lives.
So what you were wrong, so what they may laugh at you or talk about you, so what! It’s not like they aren’t doing it anyways.
So what you are embarrassed, so what you feel ashamed! Guess what? You are not the first and you definitely won’t be the last.
So what you made a fool of yourself, so what, so what, so what! Do away with the excuses and step forward with the courage and confidence of God today, because He has your back!
Right now I challenge you in this moment to release it all over to God. As Jonah was in the belly of whale he pressed through a prayer to reconcile the matter with God. As you say the prayer below I ask that you reset your mind, heart and soul to focus solely on God’s plan for your life.
No longer allow your haters, enemies, loved ones and friends to get the best of you and allow forgiveness to be an area that will hinder you all of your days.
Instead bless them and love them as God instructs us to do daily!
Blessings,
Tennille L. Whittington
Prayer for Today:
As it is written in Matthew 18:19 …I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Father on today we ask for Your forgiveness in all things; We seek forgiveness from ourselves as well, so we can move higher in You; Teach us to forgive those who have hurt, hindered or shattered our lives; Strengthen us in our areas of weakness as we step forward along Your path for our lives; Deliver us from us! In Jesus name, Amen
IJNA!
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