Category: God’s Word

How to Break Free From the Pain of Your Past

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Most of us have quite a trail of heart-wrenching moments, hardship, rough spots, downright painful experiences in our wake. Inviting Christ has our Lord and Savior does not erase our past. His blood covers our sins and we are forgiven, but the chains of our lives before Him usually tie us until we do something about it.

We carry our (emotional) baggage (our wounds, our guilt, our pain) around and doing so slows down our walk with Christ.

So can we leave behind the unnecessary baggage we haul around? YES

How?

Confess out loud what happened to you.

This is about voicing the truth. You cannot get rid of something you don’t know you have or something you deny. You need to face the truth and say it aloud. Words have power and hearing yourself speaking the truth of your past is like standing up to your enemy

You have been abused? Say it.

You have been cursed, mistreated, belittled, ignored, neglected, and/or degraded? Say it.

Confess out loud where the blame belongs

You are not to blame for what they did to you. You did not ask or beg for it, you did not deserve to suffer contrarily to what they want you to believe.

Lay the responsibility of each party where it belongs:

  • They are responsible for what they did to you. Hurting you has been their choice. Their behaviors, their hatred,  the injustice you suffered at their hands belong to them.
  • You are responsible for believing their lies, for letting it linger long enough to damage you. The lies you believe (you are not enough, you are good for nothing, you are stupid, you are worthless, you deserved it, you are faulty, you are evil, etc.) come between God and you and there is no room for lies in your relationship with God.

Confess the truth of who you are in Christ.

You are God Almighty’s beloved child. You are precious. You are chosen; He chose you. You are holy. You are made in his image and his Spirit is in you. He made you the way He wanted you for His plan. He loves you, He wants to give you the best and He wants you to receive it as the gift it is … something for good, something for his glory, something perfect in design.

God is love. There is no darkness in God; He is all light and all love and all truth: 100%.

Pray  God:

  • for the forgiveness of your sins. You have hauled around your pain perhaps because you have known nothing else, because suffering is familiar, because you believed “them” rather than God. Choosing anything else but God is a sin in His eyes. Ask him to forgive you.
    [God’s compassion is great, He wants you in a right standing with Him and the way to do it is to repent and ask for His forgiveness.]
  • for his help to forgive those who hurt you and for the forgiveness of their sins. Bless them. By refusing to forgive them, you only tighten the chains of your suffering. God commanded you to love your enemy. Forgiving them releases the hold they have on you and the hold your pain has on your life.
  • so He sets  you free from the chains you are in,  be it your pain, the lies, the curses, the soul ties or anything else.

When you stand in the truth in front of God, when you choose to trust His words to you and to obey Him (behave according to His will), miracles happen.

God’s Wrath: The Price of Repeated Disobedience

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The Israelites have done just about everything to test God’s infinite patience and love and they have often found themselves oppressed, diminished, and enslaved because they would not be humble before God. They were punished for their misconduct. When they were brought to their knees because of their punishment, they would cry out to God and He would rescue them, always reiterating what He wants:

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Ps 50:15  (KJV)

However, they had a short memory span and probably did not fully understand the meaning of “glorifying God”. They ended up displeasing God all over again and finding themselves in the same (or in worse) circumstances than those they were rescued from.

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Proverbs 6:16-19 (KJV)

Since God does not change, He still hates these things, even in people who know the Word of God.

16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.
18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.
19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.
20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.
21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

Ps 50:16-21 (KJV)

This sounds like the introduction to a lesson learned the hard way. God’s wrath hurts (Lamentations 2). Consider what happened to Adam and Eve for disobeying and see where it led mankind. Remember why Noah built an ark so a handful of righteous men would survive the flood while the rest of humanity was set to perish? Why was there a flood in the first place?

He does not only turn his wrath to the unbelievers, but also against those who are supposed to know him and those He chose.

5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

Hosea 6:5-7 (KJV)

God still teaches lessons to his children when they deserve it.

15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

Proverbs 29:15 (KJV)

God is  also just and loving.

 20 The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
22 All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live.
23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord GOD: and not that he should turn from his ways, and live?
24 But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All his righteousness that he has done shall not be remembered: in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die.
25 Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?
26 When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies in them; for his iniquity that he has done shall he die.
27 Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
28 Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
29 Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?
30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says the Lord GOD: therefore turn yourselves, and live.

Ezekiel 18:20-32 (KJV)

Just remember this:

10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Psalms 84:10 (KJV)

Related:

5 Truths about the Wrath of God

Bible Verses About the Wrath of God

Violence

The Bible Often Mentions God’s Wrath. Why does it matter?

Strength

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Why would Paul rejoice in his own weakness?

Finding a plausible explanation is not obvious, is it?

As I understand it, strength is not what we know as strength of personality. It is neither about bullying nor about demanding respect. Strength is not some snappy and hurtful comebacks. Neither is it playing the blame game nor telling home truths.

Strength is utter weakness in which He is strong.

Strength is being in tune with Almighty God.

Strength comes from and is the Holy Spirit; strength is love and forgiveness.

You are Almighty God’s perfect instrument. Your own weakness makes it so that the Holy Spirit can operate in you and use you to fulfill God’s will.

See?

9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV

Think about it. Feeling Almighty God’s love go through you is as close to Him as you are going to get in this realm.

What a wonderful feeling!

 

God’s Comforting Presence

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4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

Isaiah 54:4 (KJV)

God’s words to me in a moment when I needed reassurance that I would get through the hardship I am experiencing.

This difficult time is making me closer to God. I seek His presence,  His advice, and His comfort. He is who keeps me together, who gives me the strength to pull through and who keeps me strong in my faith in Him.

The Lord is my strength.