If this video fails to play, click here.
Tag Archives: bible verses
Being Open For God
Filed under Uncategorized
People Of Restoration
Have you ever made a mistake or messed up? Ever have anyone not let you forget it? It’s bad enough that we all make mistakes, but it’s worse when it’s public and we can’t live it down. Sometimes it makes you the butt of other people’s jokes, and sometimes it’s what keeps you from getting ahead. Each time you try to advance, there’s someone holding that over your head reminding you of that one time you messed up and that’s why they can’t trust you. It can be frustrating to be in that position, but I think it’s worse to be the person who is holding another person’s mistake against them. Grace is something we all expect from others, but rarely give someone else. We judge others by their mistakes, but want them to judge our mistakes by our intentions. It’s time we implemented the Golden Rule when it comes to mistakes people make.
Can you imagine how Peter felt when he publicly denied Jesus a couple of hours after saying he would never do that? Luke 22:61 says that when Peter denied Jesus a third time, Jesus turned and looked at him. How do you come back from that? It’s no wonder Peter wanted to go back to his old life after Jesus was crucified. He was so used to people holding his mistakes against him that he thought being the Rock of the Church was out the window. I love that Jesus introduced him to grace and asked him three times if he loved Him. It took a while for Jesus to get through to him that his mistake had been overlooked and that Jesus wouldn’t dwell on it. He restored the friendship in that conversation and reinstated Peter’s future. Jesus didn’t just do that for Peter’s benefit. He was giving us a model to emulate.
Proverbs 17:9 says, “Love overlooks the mistakes of others, but dwelling on the failures of others devastates friendships” (TPT). Who do you need to release today? Who’s failure have you been dwelling on and holding it against them? If Jesus hasn’t held your past mistakes against you, how can you hold someone’s against them? We are people of restoration. We are people of forgiveness. It’s time we began to live like that instead of the way our flesh wants us to live. Holding someone’s past against them makes you the warden and them your prisoner, but love overlooks the mistakes of others. If we’re to be known for our love, we’re to be known for letting go of people’s past mistakes.
Side note: We’re also to be people who are wise as serpents and harmless as doves. It doesn’t mean we give them full access and carte blanche. Use wisdom in providing a way forward to rebuild trust and to help them advance rather than to hold them in one place forever. We are Biblically called to forgive everyone, but not necessarily to reconcile with everyone. There’s a difference. Forgiveness frees them and you from the mistake. Reconciliation restores the relationship. Sometimes forgiveness is all you can do, and that’s ok.
Thanks to Jachan DeVol @jachan_devol for making this photo available freely on Unsplash
Filed under Uncategorized
Being Continually Renewed
One of the things I like to tell people is to choose your attitude or your day will choose it for you. I used to commute to work. Some days it was an hour, and others it would take nearly three. I drove a stick shift and would be sitting in traffic laying on and off the clutch. It was easy to get worked up and upset constantly riding the bumper of someone else while some person (not what I called them 😉) would be trying to weave through stop and go traffic. I then read where people who sit in traffic like that are susceptible to heart attacks. I decided I couldn’t allow myself to get worked up and call people names. I started choosing my attitude no matter how bad traffic was, even if it caused me to be late to a class I was training. I put on soft music and sang along in order to distract my mind. I also reminded myself that there was nothing I could do about the traffic. Some days, I just had to keep reminding myself over and over.
As a believer, there’s often a battle of the mind that has to be won over and over. It’s easy to let my past creep up on me to change my focus from what God’s grace has done to the things I’ve done in my past. That condemning mindset wants to try to tell me I’m not forgiven , I’ve used up too much grace, God could never use me, I’ve done too much, and so on. If i dwell on those thoughts, it would be easy to be unproductive, stagnant in my growth and cold to Christ in our relationship. I realize I’m unworthy of His grace, but I also remind myself that His grace is sufficient and the work has already been done. I have to choose my attitude and renew my way of thinking daily in order to keep growing and receiving God’s grace. I remind myself it’s not about what I’ve done, but what He’s done and is doing in me.
Ephesians 4:23-24 says, “And be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude], and put on the new self [the regenerated and renewed nature], created in God’s image, [godlike] in the righteousness and holiness of the truth [living in a way that expresses to God your gratitude for your salvation]” (AMP). When I’m feeling unworthy or those thoughts creep up, I remind myself of these verses to renew my way of thinking, to remember I’m made in God’s image and to thank Jesus for what He did for me. We all have choose our attitude, how we think and what we dwell on or we can go down some dark rabbit holes that will hold us back from the life we were created to live. If you’re struggling with those thoughts, ask God to help you continually renew your mind so you can be transformed from the inside out.
Photo by Luis Fernandes from Pexels
Filed under Uncategorized
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 