Some of us travel with a lot of baggage...the emotional kind. Past hurts are rehearsed over and over again; used as excuses to ignore God's call to a ministry; or to bolster pride in refusing to make amends with another. An old folk saying tells us:
Holding a grudge is like swallowing poison...and waiting for the other person to die.
Time and again, Scripture exhorts us to forgive and move forward. Take the antidote for your poisonous grudges by recalling a past hurt and instead of rehearsing or resenting, pray aloud: I FORGIVE the person who was involved. Then pray the Holy Spirit to help you forgive, forget and grow again in Christian charity.
Ephesians 4
- 23
- and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
- 24
- and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.
- ...
- 26
- Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun set on your anger,
- 27
- and do not leave room for the devil.
- ...
- 31
- All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.
- 32
- (And) be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
That's me away then.
Some of us travel with a lot of baggage...the emotional kind. Past hurts are rehearsed over and over again; used as excuses to ignore God's call to a ministry; or to bolster pride in refusing to make amends with another. An old folk saying tells us:
2 comments:
Thank you! I needed to be reminded of this this week.
Anger and resentment our like a cancer. If you harbor it, it will fester and grow and make your spirit ill and even your body too. I have better things to do than worry over past hurts. Some are still a work in progress because they left horrible scars but I am getting there!
Post a Comment