Give It a Rest!

Current Precious Prodigal's Post = http://bit.ly/28KAesE Like what you see? Please "Like" & "Share" with your online friends. Read more by going to: ritamoritz.com/PPBlog/PPBArchive.html

Current Precious Prodigal's Post = http://bit.ly/28KAesE

Title: Give It a Rest! ‪

#‎choosejoy‬ ‪#‎giveitarest‬

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1 Peter 4:12 “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you”

What is your reaction when the people you love hurt or disappoint you? Are you surprised and even shocked? I know I am. And yet we shouldn’t be. People are just people, even those we love, and they are going to sometimes do things that disappoint us and maybe even devastate us.

“Fiery trials” come to all of us, and sometimes they come from the people we love the most. In fact, 1 Peter 4:12 tells us not to think it strange when bad things happen. When they do, sometimes the only control we have is how we’re going to respond.

Jesus didn’t promise his followers an easy path, and He doesn’t promise us that either. Quite the opposite. He told his disciples they were going to encounter tribulation in the world. But He also said, they were to be of “good cheer” because He had overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Be of good cheer when the world is crashing down around us? Is that even remotely possible? I guess that depends on whether you and I are willing to take ownership of and responsibility for how we respond when problems comes.

Some people focus on and talk about the “problem” so much that it’s like shooting themselves in the foot. That problem, that issue, that heartache becomes the focal point of their lives, and everything revolves around it.

If you comment on their beautiful vegetable garden, they respond by telling you it helps them deal with their “problem.” If they’ve started a ministry that is touching and changing lives, they dab at their eyes and say it helps them “cope.”

If you tell them you heard they are showing dogs, they answer that a friend thought it would help them “under the circumstances.” I’m sometimes tempted to say, “Under the circumstances? What in the world are you doing under there?”

I’m not saying life is easy when you love a prodigal or when you’ve been deeply hurt by someone. I’m right there with you. It’s tough. And I’m not saying we don’t need to sometimes share our pain. We do. But that prodigal and that pain are not my entire life, nor should they be yours. If they are, it’s our focus that’s causing our pain and not our circumstances.

What about growing vegetables because they’re delicious, and seeing them grow gives you pleasure? What about working with dogs because you love them, and they bring you joy? What about starting a ministry because Jesus is worthy, the people are needy, and you are willing?

What about living above our circumstances as overcomers rather than under our circumstances as victims? How can I tell someone there is victory and joy in Jesus if my face and my words are an advertisement for the book of Lamentations?

There will be times we need to vent, and I know that as well as you do. When our hearts have been broken, we can’t help but revisit that sometimes. However, we don’t need to pitch a tent and camp out there. Sometimes we need to just give it a rest.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, chose to focus on the good things in our lives and to rejoice in the blessings that are all around us?

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Today's Precious Prodigal's Post = http://bit.ly/28NmsJg

Title: Death of a Thousand Cuts ‪

#‎guardyourheart‬ ‪#‎GraceforGrace

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Leviticus 19:18 “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.”

Did you know wounds need to heal from the inside out? In fact, surgeons will often put sterile packing in a surgical wound to ensure that it doesn’t close up on the outside without healing first on the inside. Otherwise, that wound can fester under the surface and create serious problems later.

That’s true about spiritual wounds as well. You don’t have to love a prodigal to know about anger and resentment. Those are feelings everyone has. But having a prodigal in your life or having someone personally and viciously hurt you takes it to a new level, doesn’t it?

Those offenses that come, the ones we tend to harbor in our hearts, don’t always come from a prodigal either. Nor do they confine themselves to the workplace, the grocery store (even Walmart), or the ballfield. Ready for a shocker? The people who hurt you the most, who cause the most grievous wounds, who rip your heart out and stomp on it with combat boots…yep, them…they are very possibly the people you worship with.

There’s often a new outrage every single day, and I can then just add it to the mountain of other wounds that person has inflicted. The next thing I know I’m replaying all those things in my mind, and if I’m not careful, those things begin to fester. I might even be thinking about getting even. And who could blame me?

Don’t go getting all “pseudo-spiritual” on me here. You know exactly what I’m talking about or whom I’m talking about. If you’re lucky, they moved on to another church after they broke your heart. However, it doesn’t always happen that way. And there they sit three rows back from you on the other side of the church…because they for sure don’t want to sit next to you. They’ve lied about you, snubbed you and maybe even humiliated you. How can you not want to smack them back…just once?

But God has a better plan. That’s why Leviticus 19:18 says I’m not to seek vengeance or try to “get even.” But the Scripture takes it even further by telling me I’m not to bear a grudge. Ouch!

You mean I can’t even take that little (or big) resentment and tuck it away safely in the back corner of my mind and heart? You know…so I can take it out occasionally and savor it? Nope. Not even that.

And it doesn’t really matter what someone else has done to hurt me because when I’m seeking revenge or holding that resentment, the only person I’m hurting is myself. And “loving my neighbor as myself” means I can’t ask for mercy when I hurt someone but demand justice when someone hurts me.

Resentment

by Rita Aiken Moritz

Resentment is a sentiment

that I cannot afford,

so I just have to turn it loose

and give it to the Lord.

To pray for one who brought me pain

is more than I can do 

in my own strength and power.

And yet I know it’s true

that when I nurse resentment, it

hurts me much more than you.

By holding on to bitterness,

I buy into the lie

that I can drink the poison brew

and wait for you to die.

Challenge for today: What might happen if we, just for today, chose to let go of that resentment and any thoughts of revenge? What if we showed the same mercy to others that we ask God to show toward us?