“Peace, peace, wonderful peace.” I am not sure this will be a one-article subject. I have had to personally fight off my own demons on this one. But this is a subject I am passionate about so, although the journey has been a long and winding road, I am determined to venture onward and upward. You know none of us want to be controlled; however, if you are not being controlled by God then most certainly you are being by the devil. Yeah, I said it—he is alive and well, but so is Jesus.
When I go through my old journals, I see that forgiveness has always been the continuing thread that got perfectly woven into my tapestry. It has been a royal pain in the butt, a thorn in my side. Sorry, anyway, the bible says that as a follower of Christ we must forgive those that have hurt us, at least seventy by seven times. When it feels like you can’t possibly forgive that person one more time, give it to Jesus. Our perception of our world can be very one-sided; what is real to one person may not be real to another. The only real truth we have is the word of God: “God is not a man so He should lie.” God cannot lie; God does not change. Satan is alive and well; when he knows something hurts you, he’s going to keep going after that area of your life until you are so beaten down, you just give in. Satan is just a spirit, who can’t influence us without our permission. So if we know that, be prepared for him. Do not open the door for him to enter; the entrance way is through our minds. What you can do when you know it is his handy work, is to laugh. Praise God and let Satan know he needs to go somewhere else, you just don’t have time for him. Next, stop trying to get even with people who have hurt you. Romans 12:19, “I will have vengeance. I will repay.” Don’t take over God’s job. Matthew 5:44 says to pray for those who hurt you. Pray for them as if they were someone you loved. There was a time I thought that to pretend to care for someone, was being a phony. I just couldn’t handle that; it was as if I was being untrue to myself. Well, I am starting to figure out that whenever “myself” gets into the mix, we got a problem. So what I learned is that faking is like the training ground for changing the way we think. Just like any other bad habit, you need to replace the bad habit with a good habit: “Fake it, till you make it.” Take it to God, let Him validate you, He will comfort you, tell Him of your pain and suffering—He will not leave you. After receiving His love, refuse to be offended, laugh it off, replace it with a prayer to God to bless them, yes bless them. Love to the unlovable. Then leave it at the foot of His cross, the place where He shed His blood for you. If we cannot trust Jesus to do as He says He will do, then we do not have faith and without faith, we ourselves hinder the hand of God.
The one prayer that Jesus left us was the “Our Father” one and He says, “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespass against us.” What transpires with this one dramatic fight, is peace, peace, wonderful peace. It surpasses everything else on this earth!
