TGIF!!

It's Friday!!  70 degrees and overcast in Lilburn!

Forgiveness, that is what I am talking about today.  Again, one of the hardest things to do, at first.  After you truly do it, you find that it gets easier and easier!  This is because you realize what it does for you, how it releases your feelings of resentment, anger and pain.  I didn't say you would forget what someone did to you, I just said you can forgive...

Several years go by, and God is continuously dealing with me...  About obedience, and forgiveness.  It seems like everywhere I turn, I hear both of those words...its like a big banner in front of me..."Obedience...Forgiveness".....everywhere!  

At this point in my life, I am not being obedient.  I am only going to church, "when I feel like it".  I am still living my life in the secular world....

One Sunday morning, we decided to go to a church near us...just to go...(my daughter and her husband had visited here a couple of times)  We go in, sit down, and I see this man standing on the platform...he looks familiar, but I don't know anyone in Atlanta, so I shrugged it off.  As the minutes went by, I am still going over and over in my mind...I know this man...but who is he????  
I finally look at the bulletin..and here is this familiar name...Danny Odum!  I DO know this man!  He is the son in law of my long time next door neighbor from Florida!  Coincidence???  I might have thought that at the time, until I learned, there is no such thing...we will talk about that later....

As it turns out, we continued to go to this church...not regularly as we should, but when we did go, this is where we went.  It was a place that God used to show me some things also...although at the time, I didn't see that...hidden blessings are everywhere!

At this time, I was in the "pit"...I couldn't seem to climb out of...There was a guest preacher at church this one Sunday morning...and he preached right at me!  How did he know what I was feeling, what I was going thru?  He preached about Joseph and how he was in that pit.....it was ME!  I knew this was God speaking to ME!  After the service, I went up to speak to the preacher, and told him how this was for me that he spoke...he said, the one thing he forgot to say but intended to, was that Joseph was in prison for 13 years.  He didn't get out overnight.  That statement has stayed with me, all these years....and it was for a reason, it was not a "happenstance"....

Several years are going by, and I still am not where I need to be...why Lord?  Why am I not getting out of this place I am in???

Tyler Perrys movies/plays, clients coming into the salon speaking things that stand out in a huge way to me....books I read...its all right there, Gods word, every time I opened it, it was right there!  Why was I not getting it???

One summer, about 3 years ago, I got it!  By this time, I am going to a little church in Lilburn, White Oak Baptist Church, and the Pastor is none other than ...are you ready for this???  Danny Odum!  Coincidence?  I think not!  I am starting to get it, but something is still missing....

I am at the salon, its busy at that moment, and I get a phone call, asking me to spend the day with them the next day.  (I know, I didn't say who it was, but let me just say, it was someone I needed to forgive, and to also ask forgiveness)  My first thought was, why?  I haven't even seen these people in years, and the salon is busy, I can't leave.  God DOES have a sense of humor, I look down at the appointment book, and there is NOTHING on the book for the next day.  That NEVER happens!  Well, I figured God was telling me to go...so I said yes.

They came by to pick me up the next morning...I had already prayed and asked God to help me, help me to forgive, and help me know what to say.  So, they came into my home, and we all stood in my foyer, I told them that I needed to forgive them, and that I wanted to ask forgiveness from them also.  It was a good thing.  I could immediately feel all the resentment, bitterness, anger leave my heart!!!  I knew that it was real for me!!
We all stood there, holding hands, and we had prayer.  :)  I spent the day with them, and it was a good day.

My life started to change in a HUGE way!  Oh I still had problems, as long as you live in this world, we will have problems..but thank you Lord, we have someone to help us thru them!    My whole life started changing...I was reading God's word more, my heart was more in tune with Him, I saw hidden blessings showing up that I never saw before!  Hallelujah!  

Jesus died on the cross to FORGIVE our sins, MY sins...how could I not forgive the wrongs done to me?  They are so tiny compared to what God did for me!  

This is only the beginning....but for me, it is SO important to think about the Cross, where Jesus died to pay for ALL our sins.  He could have stopped it at any moment, but he loved us enough to continue, to go thru the pain and agony he must have endured, so that WE could have life eternal, and be with HIM in Heaven!  

Tomorrow, we continue....but today, I challenge you to pray!  To ask God to give you a forgiving heart, to help you to forgive those things, those people that have hurt you....I will be praying for you.  No, I don't know who you are, but God does, and He will know who I am praying for when I pray.  
Until next time, God Bless us all!  :)