CHOOSE FORGIVENESS
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 6:14-15 NLT
TODAY’S THOUGHT
Letting go of hurts is very hard to do. If you live long enough you will be hurt by other people. People hurt people because they are hurting themselves. Sometimes people hurt people unintentionally and sometimes it is done intentionally.
Regardless of the reason behind the hurt it is hard to let go of that hurt. Resentment, anger, and bitterness can grow within us when we are hurt by others. The root of bitterness can literally cloud every area of our life. Resentment, anger, and bitterness can impact our health, our state of mind, and our emotional health. Even other relationships can be impacted because of bitterness or anger towards someone else.
Resentment, anger, and bitterness are poisons that impact every part of our being. Even when we are right, and the other person is wrong these attitudes will destroy our wellbeing and threaten our relationships with people we love. Jesus even tells us that our relationship with our Heavenly Father is impacted when we allow these negative attitudes to live inside of us.
I know what it is like to have to work through the hurt caused by others. I wish I could tell you all you need to do is pray a prayer and release them into the hands of God. But to be honest, it has often taken me many prayers to fully release the hurts caused by others.
I have spent days, weeks, and months praying over some people before I sensed a true release from resentment, anger, and bitterness. Daily I have prayed for God to bless them even when I knew my heart did not want them to be blessed. But I know I have released them to God when I pray that prayer and I mean it. Sometimes it has taken months of repeating a prayer of blessing before I finally realized the words were coming from my heart instead of my head—and at that moment I knew the resentment, anger, and bitterness were gone.
Don’t keep drinking the poison of resentment, anger, and bitterness. Choose each day to release that person to God by speaking blessing over them and asking the Holy Spirit to cleanse your heart of resentment, anger, and bitterness. Life is too short to carry the load of wrong emotions.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Holy Spirit please show me any resentment, anger, or bitterness in my life. Today I speak blessings on those who have hurt me, and I refuse to carry their hurt through resentment, anger, and bitterness.
“Scroll down to share what you feel God is saying based on today’s reading.”
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