But Did You Die?

I'm sure that at least one time in your life, you have experienced being wronged. I mean REALLY being wronged. You feel that the person somehow should pay for what they’ve done or AT THE VERY LEAST apologize for it. Right? Well if you haven't, I have!  I was recently asked how did I get past the feeling of "YOU MUST PAY"!  Now let me be transparent.  I definitely went through moments of thinking of ways they should pay and the satisfaction I would get out of it. I questioned God. "Why do they get to go on with their lives? Why do they get to prosper after doing this to me? Why do they get to...blah blah blah?" I expressed that I didn't think it was fair.  After all, I was hurt, talked about, embarrassed, felt like a failure, etc. Eventually, God said, " I know how this made you feel but you survived".  At first, I felt "Really God? But I survive? Yeah, Barely sir" After some prayer, ok a great deal of prayer, I realize that I was losing my focus on what was important. I realized how much time (even if it was only a minute) I had to remove my focus off them and put it towards God and making Monica a better Monica.  After all, they were going on living their best life and in some instances didn't even realize the hurt they caused. 

 Recently, my Apostle, Dr. Mathhew Stevenson III was delivering a message on a similar topic and simply said: "But did you die?" That struck me. I remembered the feeling I have felt of being wrong and how even though it hurt, perhaps in some cases realtered my life, direction, etc, but "Did I Die?  After shifting my focus, I learned more about me, God, and some of the changes were actually positive ones that made Monica a better Monica. I don't' believe that God allows us to go through disappointments, hurts, etc just for his entertainment. I believe that God allows us to go through certain things to build, strengthen, develop us and our faith IN HIM. Let's be clear, forgiving others can be tough ! Especially when they aren't apologetic. As I write this, I'm reminded of a post I made that said "Forgiving someone, isn't about trusting THEM! It's about trusting HIM and freeing YOU". I use to want to hear the "I'm sorry". I wanted them to feel the hurt and pain I felt. But once I learned to TOTALLY release the focus off them, I became free. God taught me to pray for those that hurt me. Freedom really is a choice.  You can chose to be bound and controlled by feelings of revenge and restitution, or you can chose to walk in freedom.  I came out stronger once I took my focus off of THEM and put it on HIM. So the next time someone does you wrong, forgive (Yes even before the apology), take a deep breathe and see it as an opportunity to grow. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weather Report

As I looked at my "Timehop" I saw a post I  wrote a year ago. The post was written as I watched the news, specifically the weather. It made me think, how many of us plan our day, waredrobe, etc around what the weatherman "predicts"? He says "a chance of rain" we take our umbrella. He says, "1-3 inches of snow" we wear boots. Even if when we look outside and there is NO sign of what the weatherman has predicted, we believe and carry out our day accordingly. What if we had the same faith in God, his promises and his word as we do the weatherman. Would we believe that "by his stripes we are healed" even when the dr report says differently? Will we believe that when we're in trouble "God will part the heavens and come down and grab hold of us" when we are in trouble regardless if there APPEARS to be no way out? Will we believe? When we look at our situations, bills, finances, life, and what we see doesn't match what God ha
Read more

Today I Pray

Today I pray against the spiriting depression! I pray that fir every negative thought, God replaces them with 5 positive, building, encouraging thoughts. I pray that when the spirit of loneliness creeps up, you feel Gods spirit of love. I pray that when the spirit of defeat creeps in, God overwhelms you with the spirit and the fighting warrior! I pray that when you feel like no one loves or appreciates you, god reminds you that I do. Sometime we may not get the love appreciation as WE would like but if we take THAT moment to think about how God feels we we don't love and appreciate him, our worries don't seem that significant.
Read more

Work It

Do the best that you can with what you've got. It may be a little, may be a lot. Regardless of the measure, we are all blessed with SOMETHING. The key is not to worry about what someone else has. If we constantly measure ourselves to others we may feel that we always fall short. When really we only know what people allow us to know. For instance, you may see a woman that is beautiful, with a georgeous husband, big house, expensive car. That same woman may have tons of weave, makeup covering up bruises from being abused from her hunk of a man. The point, live out YOUR destiny not someone else's. Be tue to God, yourself and those that love you. Seek and use he gifts and talents God gave YOU! Follow YOUR dreams and reach YOUR goals! What are YOU working with? Work it!
Read more