Its Gonna Be Alright!

 1 Peter 3:9

I do not repay evil for evil. I do not retaliate with insults when people insult me. Instead, I pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called me to do, and He will bless me for it.

You remember - that moment when your heart sink, when you didn't fit in with everyone else, when you were disappointed by someone's actions against you, when you felt that no one understood what you were going through. That was the moment that you always remember because of the pain in your heart. Did you know that God was there with you all along, helping you to survive the pain and the hurt so that you could come to this time and place and declare your love for Him?

I had a dream this morning that brought up some old trauma from the past. I can say that now because I realize what that moment did inside of me. I was angry and full of pain. I felt rejected and disrespected by someone who was supposed to love me no matter what.  And that memory and the trauma stayed with me all of my life.

 

God sometimes reminds us of what has happened in the past so that we can give that pain and trauma to Him. He wants to heal our hurts and purify our hearts. Painful and hurtful moments in life tend to shape our mind and our character in negative ways. Fear and anger set into our hearts. Loneliness and rejection are not far behind. We need to see ourselves as Jesus Christ sees us. He sees us as valuable and precious. He loves us with all of His heart, mind, and soul. No one can take us from His hands. We are secure in His love.

But we must understand who we are in Christ Jesus. Until we understand how He loves us, and how He sees us in His heart, we will always feel impure or guilty. The guilt is not necessary when the Lord has already cleansed us of all unrighteousness and sin. He has made atonement for all our mistakes in the past, the ones we will make today, and the ones we will do in the future. All we have to do is acknowledge what we have done and forgive ourselves, and then we take the matter to Jesus so that he can whisper into our hearts. "It is finished. I have already cleansed you of this sin. You are free to live without this burden forever and ever and live in me....."

What a happy and joyous moment when we realize that we are free from our burden of sin to live peacefully and happily in the Lord Jesus Christ!