These two topics do not seem to go together, but I will try to explain how my mind is working this morning to make the connection. The Bible says that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10). This is not the fear you feel when you hear a strange sound at night that awakens you and makes your heart beat fast. No, I’m referring to reverence for the Lord, the respect due Him because He is the Creator and the one who hears and answers our prayers.
How does this kind of fear help us to escape the snare of death? Well, if we fear the Lord, then we follow what He has told us to do. And one of the things that the Lord emphasized during His ministry was to forgive others.
If you want God to forgive your sins, then you have to forgive others. When I think about all that Jesus has forgiven me, it makes it easier to forgive others. The Lord didn’t say that forgiveness was an option if you felt like it. No, he stated that if you refuse to forgive others, then Your Father won’t forgive your sins. And Colossians says you MUST forgive one another AS the Lord as forgiven you. “Must” is something you have to do. For example, if you want to arrive safely at your destination when you are driving, you must stop at the stop signs. That is not a stop if you feel like it. It’s a warning to do it in order to save your life, just in case another car is coming at the same time. Likewise, having bitterness in your heart is like going through a stop sign. You are taking unnecessary chances with your life. Who does unforgiveness hurt? Not the person you are angry with! It hurts you! Don’t you think your Heavenly Father knows the stress that bitterness and anger against someone causes you? So, He who knows you best and loves you most has told you to fear HIm and in so doing to follow His advice that leads to life, i.e. forgive. Don’t hold grudges. I speak from experience because I used to say as a matter of routine, “Yes, of course, I have forgiven (fill in the blank), but I am not forgetting what they did to me.” Sounds good, right? I forgive, so I am doing what God told me to do. Not really. When God forgives our sins, they are removed from His memory. He sees us through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. (Psalm 103:12 says God removes our sins “as far as the east is from the west.”). Now, if you are honest, then you know that true forgiveness is hard. Each time a person who has offended you comes to your mind, you should be saying to yourself that you have forgiven him or her. Then, move on with your life and don’t dwell on the offense. Who is helped by forgiveness? You are! Physically, emotionally and spiritually. Do you want to feel better? Fear the Lord and forgive! Over and over again…as many times as you are offended, forgive and you will reap the benefits of freedom from holding a grudge. And perhaps in so doing, you will save a friendship or a marriage or another important relationship. Doing God’s will is always what is best for us!
God must really be trying to get this verse into my heart because it was in my devotional and again in the Bible study that I am doing (“In the Middle of the Mess” with Shelia Walsh on StudyGateway.com) and again in a song I listened to as I did my devotional. I must confess that although I love the premise of the verse, when God points it out to me so repeatedly, I start getting anxious about what is going to happen that I need the evidence of God’s love. I guess that is just the real me coming out, and I need to have more faith and lesss fear.
This is how the passage continues, i.e. nothing can separate us from God’s love. When I doubt, He still loves me. When I rage (as I did when my best friend died), He is still with me. When I am feeling weak in my faith, He is still with me. I love God and trust that no matter how I feel, He is with me and loves me. When I was a little girl, my mom used to tell me all the time how ugly I was. In fact, she told me that I needed to go to college and have a good career because no one would ever marry me since I was so ugly. Alone in the bathroom, I would cry and sing the song that I remembered from visits to Sunday school with a neighbor, “Jesus Loves Me.” I did not know about Jesus’s free gift of salvation, but even as a young child, I knew deep in my heart that Jesus loves me. By the way, now that I am an adult and married for forty-five years, I look in the mirror and see a reflection of my mother. So maybe it was herself that she didn’t like. I’m not a psychologist and my mom died over thirty years ago, but I do know that I do look just like she did before she died. I’m really happy to say that God has come through for me and shown me His love and acceptance, healing a lot of wounds from my childhood. I didn’t know this verse when I was all alone and singing my song, but God knew my heart and my need for love and sent the Lord to be with me and comfort me.
Sometimes bad things happen, even in the lives of Christians. My beloved father became a drug addict and he also sold drugs. I still loved him but after his first arrest, I didn’t trust him. Can you imagine having the man who held you and told you that “everything will be okay” changing so much that it was hard to even see him? But I promised my Aunt Loree (his sister) when she was dying that I would keep in touch with daddy and talk to Him about the Lord. So, I did. When daddy was out of prison and I could contact him more easily, we talked every week, sometimes twice a week. I did my best to tell him about Jesus and His love for him. My brother had been separated from daddy for about twenty years, and I told him that he needed to forgive daddy and move on because the bitterness in his heart was not hurting daddy but it was hurting him. So, he did talk to daddy, visited him and began to love him again. In fact, he was the one with daddy when he took his last breath. And guess what? James was talking to daddy about death and Heaven and daddy professed his belief. So, in the end, He had victory over the drugs and over death. Praise be to God that I will see daddy again in Heaven! I never thought that was possible, but Aunt Loree knew that the seeds had been planted when he was a young boy. I watered a little weekly and James got to see the fruit at daddy’s bedside when he was dying. God is faithful and always loves us. Don’t you want that kind of never-ending love in your life? It is an awesome feeling to know that the God who created the whole Universe loves ME! And He loves YOU, too! Just accept His forgiveness and love and know that He is always with you.
After my stroke in January 2015, I came to a startling revelation. I am not going to live forever. This life is temporary. So, after my stroke, my life became more precious to me because I was no longer taking it for granted. I know that my days are numbered by the Lord and since I know Jesus as my Savior, I know that when I die I will go to be with Him. But these “numbered” days are the ones I need to use to make sure that the new generation coming after me knows about all the Lord has done for me. For example, when I gave birth to my second son Scott, I was all alone in a military hospital and bleeding profusely. The nurse unwisely told me, “You’re dying.” I had a three year old daughter at home and a newborn baby and I was told that I was “bleeding out” and would die. I don’t recall praying but I do remember calling out the name of the the Lord. Then a doctor that I had never seen before stopped by my bedside, balled up his fist and before I knew what was happening, he socked me hard in my abdomen. A huge clot came out, and my life was saved. He told me I would be fine now and walked away. The nurse said he couldn’t tell me beforehand what he was going to do because I would have tensed up and his technique would not have worked. I just called it a miracle! Later, when I had my stroke and could not speak, I was crying out to God in the ambulance. Again, he spared my life. Another miracle! These are the big ones that I can tell about but there are small ones every day. I have severe allergies, but I wanted a kitty, so my husband indulged me (after all, I had survived a stroke) and I am pleased to report that I have not suffered any ill effects at all. Daisy is in my lap now and stays there a lot, to keep me company and just to be with me. When our daughter Hope was just a baby, only a few months old, our family was on the way to a prayer group meeting when a truck crossed the center line and hit us head-on. I had just finished nursing Hope and put her back into her car seat when the accident occurred. The car was totaled. My husband and I were all bruised up, but not badly. And miracle of miracles, Hope was fine! No bumps, bruises, scrapes, nothing. God is good, isn’t He? We need to tell others daily about what He has done in our lives, not just to remind us and to testify to them, but also to leave a legacy to our children, grandchildren and friends about the power of God and His love for us in all situations. I want to tell of God’s love for as long as I live. What legacy do you want to leave behind for your loved ones? I hope that it is a tale of God’s goodness and grace and mercy, because those are the stories that will live forever.
Hello, all!
God has promised to be with us when we go through the deep waters. The word is “when,” not “if” so our Heavenly Father knows that sometimes the waters of this life will overwhelm us, but He promises to always be with us. If you recall the Bible story with Jesus in the boat with His disciples and a big storm came up. Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat, and the waves were getting bigger and frightening His followers. When they awoke Jesus, he just said, “Peace, be still” to the wind and waves and they instantly obeyed Him. God knows our hearts and all we are going though and He promises to be right there with us. When I had a stroke three and a half years ago, I was frightened. Not being able to feel the entire right side of my body and not being able to speak except in a stutter was terrifying. The trip in the ambulance was scary; the diagnosis of a massive stroke (19 on a scale of 21, they told me) was horrifying. But though it all, I was praying to my Heavenly Father. When my husband arrived at the hospital, he started praying. He called our daughter in Pennsylvania, and she started praying. And God heard our prayers. I had arrived at the hospital in what they called “the golden hour” so they gave me a clot-busting shot that saved my life and restored my ability to move and speak. God is good and an ever-present help in trouble!
Do you sometimes just sigh and wonder if all that happens on earth is worth going through? There are a lot of trials and problems on earth that we often feel as Christians that we should not have to go through. I could summarize some of the sufferings of the apostles for you so that you know this suffering thing is not new. Everyone goes through it, but one day God will reveal His glory to us and what a glorious day that will be! We just have to keep or eyes on the future prize and not the present circumstances.
We are called to think about the things of Heaven that are eternal instead of the earthly things that are passing away. I admit that this is very hard to do on a daily basis. As soon as we awaken each day, we face challenges. For me, the challenge is to have to sit quietly, take my blood pressure and take numerous medications every day. That has been my routine since my stroke in 2015. But I know that God left me here on earth for a reason so I follow the doctor’s orders and keep my eyes fixed on why God left me here and what I can do each day to serve Him. Today, I went to the morning prayer meeting at church and then to a sing-along at the local nursing home. The residents were thankful to have us there. After we sang, we walked around and prayed individually with each resident. It was a pleasure and an honor to pray with these souls who may be suffering and lonely, but they still come to the cafeteria, sing the praise songs that they remember and pray with us. They are looking forward to Heaven and are an example for me to follow!
So, how am I so sure that one day I will get to see Tessa? Because I have called on the name of Jesus as my Lord and Savior. He is the only Way to salvation, and I trust Him completely to get me through the trials of this life and when I am finished with my journey here on earth, He will take me to Heaven to be with Him. And then I will be with Him for eternity. If you want to know for sure that this life is not all there is, you have to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and ask Him into your heart. His promises are always fulfilled, so you can count on Him to forgive you, to live in your heart, to guide your steps for the rest of your life on earth, and one day, to take you to Heaven to be with Him. Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? He loves you so much that He died for you. Can you say a prayer asking for forgiveness so that you are assured of salvation? God bless you for reading this lengthy post.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 