Tag: hurt

when it’s hard to believe for the best

Karla Lees

Yesterday was a day filled with highs and lows, from which I am still both in shock and filled with praise as i process it all.

It is hard seeing your child reeling with hurt. One of mine is struggling to show honor in a placement where she has been discouraged and put down by the leadership for the past several weeks, simply because they are negative people.

The other child heard he may need surgery to fix a disc and nerve problem.

It has been hard to come alongside them and not take over, as the momma within rages at the circumstances.

Instead, I have stood and praised Him despite how I am feeling.

My children are not my babies anymore. They are both young adults who have had curve balls hurled their way, and are still standing up to praise Him in the midst.

If I have done nothing else right in the hard times of my life, seeing my kids raise Him in praise no matter the season blesses my heart for my part modeling how to do so.

But more importantly, it blesses His heart for their part in bringing Him the sacrifice of praise.

Last night, my country took a radical turn politically.  One that i sense will leave scars across every province. People who had served their constituents well were voted out because the nation decided to teach its former leader a lesson.

Experience can help guide us in the hard times, but faith in who you believe in needs to be our bedrock during the storms.

There is no one politician upon whose shoulders Canada can rest for safe haven in the coming storms.

There is only One pair of arms who can wrap around us and help us to stand, safe and secure in His embrace from what may come.

That became evident in a conversation with a coworker who had been reeling from an unexpected demand to prove himself again to a new team addition in another organization he works for, when he already has done so to the team as a whole for over a year.  His commitment to his word and the Word has been an inspiration to those who know Him, and inspired me to dig deeper into all He has for me. He cried out to God, spoke in response as He led, and God is stirring up the leadership to come out swinging in his defence.  As he waits, not yet knowing how this will all play out.

Yet He knows His security is not found in the support of human leaders, although he is blessed with their favor, but the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

In the last 48 hours I have stepped up to the plate three times as God has called me to, and used my gifting in ways I wasn’t quite ready for.  I suspect that was so He could show me just how solid and dependable He could be for me as I solely put my Hope and trust in Him to strengthen and empower me for the tasks I stepped into.

He blew me away with His grace, and the knowledge He was with me. He showed up in power, and lives were blessed through the encounters with Him as a result.

Because I emptied myself of me all the more, He had more room to move through and in me to use me as a blessing where He had placed me.   It wasn’t easy to let go of my struggle to be in control, but it was so sweet to rest in Him and allow Him to lead.

In a hard place?

Wounded from an unexpected arrow in the battle?

Weary from the race?

Fearful of what lies ahead?

Find comfort in knowing you are never alone, Beloved.

Draw strength from His embrace.

Proclaim His praise even when things look dim and grey.

Rest in Him, as He keeps you by His side, and helps you to stand.

May He fill your heart to overflowing with His love, as you fix your eyes upon Him above the waves, and take hold of the Rock of Ages. He promises He will come to us, His Beloved, the ones He died to save from sin. He will not abandon us in the battle.  He will come to our rescue, and show Himself strong as our defence.

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imprints

Karla Lees

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Yesterday was officially Infant & Pregnancy Loss Awareness Day.

Those of us who have lost a child know three key things from our loss:

1. We think about it way more than once a year.

2. We need to talk about it more than once a year.

3. Things have been forever changed.

Once a year only serves as a jump off point for those who need to heal from this kind of loss.

Let me tell you, almost nothing in my life has been more traumatic than the loss of my first pregnancy.

Discovering that I carried him, and the heartbreak of losing him all within a six week period impacted me hard, like falling into a cement block would.

Yet this wee one, whose feet never touched the ground, had a positive impact upon me too.

For God reminded me:
– He had made him (I believe his name is Andrew) and gifted us with him. 
-all life is precious to Him, regardless of how long we get to spend here on earth
-He was with me in Andrew’s conception, his growth and his departing. He never left my side through it all.

I think often what life would have been like had Andrew made it to birth, and at every stage I have celebrated in wonder as my two miracles have grown before my very eyes.

You see, I was so traumatized by losing my first child that I was literally a fear time bomb when I realized I was pregnant again, with my daughter.

Yet God was so gracious in how He poured love, freedom and hope within me as He reassured me He was with me, every time I ran to Him & nestled into His embrace.

I discovered joy in both my following pregnancies, despite my fear.

My delivery of my daughter was a whole other drama (think about having a dozen witnesses!) but I made it through, and delighted in her arrival.  My son’s delivery was scarier, yet God gave me a peace beyond comprehension that he was going to make it, and he did.

Because I had been set free from the heartbreak of loss, I was able to whole hearted accept the gift He handed me. New life.

All my children have been incredible gifts.

One i will meet face to face beside Jesus.

The other two I am honored to say I will have the pleasure of introducing to their sibling who went on ahead one heavenly moment yet to come.

Sometimes when you have lost, in my case, the depth God went to to heal me from my miscarriage, you are blessed to have a heightened wonder at what you have been given afterwards.

If you too have lost a child, in utero or after birth, my heart goes out to you.

My heart has been made whole again despite my losses, grief and trials because its Maker has touched me and brought me back to life.

My prayer is that you will allow Him to do the same.

And may He rise up around you those who you can share your burden and grief with, who will direct you back to the Healer of all wounds, hurts & brokenness, as they love you alongside you in your loss.

Yet Andrew’s tiny feet have left an imprint on my heart which will never leave, nor do I want them to. I am a better mom, more compassionate friend, and can find joy in the mundane of the day to day because I know that I know He is with me, each step, every moment.

Losing Andrew and meeting God in the whirlwind of the emotion which followed taught me that.

one

Karla Lees

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 ESV

When I hear about people putting losses down by categories, my blood boils.

When your loved one leaves you, has cancer, or is shot while at the movies, school or church, it shouldn’t matter what social class you belong to nor the colour of your skin.

We all bleed the same when we are hurt.

For we all made by the same Maker, in His image.

We were meant to be one family, united in God.

Not broken into factions and splinters, so diverse we can no longer move past our preferences in approach to unite around Him.

Personally, I don’t care how you choose to worship God.  It matters that you do it, and know Him intimately.  Who am i to tell you not to listen to that worship group or Pastor, and likewise?

Holy Spirit is to be the One voice we listen to, discerning His heart and path for us. One voice, rising above the pain and hurts on this earth.

For did you know, God’s heart breaks as He cries over the broken?

Not just for each individual, but everyone.

The whole Bride was the prize for which Jesus went to the cross. God’s whole heart on display for us all.

For He knows we are all meant to be One in Him, because He designed us with that need.

When one of us is hurting, we all hurt when we are united in Christ.

The attack in Charleston has not only slaughtered the innocent, but attempted to breach the Kingdom.

May we rise as One church, One bride under our One Head, Jesus and lift our voices in prayer, inviting God to minister to the families left empty armed, and this local church which has been invaded.

May our prayers, those of the One family of God, regardless of colour, race, status, education or stature, arise like incense to His throne.

May He respond with a pouring out of love & unity on His Beloved unseen before, right here and right now.

May the Church respond with such unity His heart will be blessed.

One Bride, shining as she walks ever closer towards her Bridegroom.

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snapshots along the Way: Betrayed

Karla Lees

As I have been rereading the Easter story, I have been struck anew by one word today: betrayed.

Jesus was betrayed to His death.

That sobering fact is not a simple one, but rather a way more complex than I have ever pondered and mulled over before.

Jesus was betrayed.

By one of His closes friends, one of the 12 He held most dear and invested countless moments, stories, and relationship building with over the three years they were together.

Judas was not a stranger, but a friend Jesus knew well.

That betrayal must have hurt Jesus deeply.

All of us have had someone betray us, but here is the clincher: Judas didn’t get that they were going to kill Jesus. He thought that Jesus would reveal Himself in power if His hand was forced, and the Kingdom of Heaven would come earlier to Israel.

I believe it is the grief of his misbelief mixed with his genuine love for Jesus that led him to His suicide.  Judas had no idea of what was to come, but Jesus did. And He knew it would hurt more than just His heart.

Yet he was not the only disciple to betray Jesus.  All the disciples scattered when Jesus was arrested.  Even Peter denied Jesus three times when asked if he was one of His disciples.  Like sheep without a shepherd, they didn’t know what to do when their leader was abruptly taken from them.

And all this occurred right after the first communion, where Jesus revealed His love to those closest to Him. Those He had lived & traveled with, those who had seen His miracles, and broken bread with, turned and ran at the first sign of major conflict.

Then you have the Jews. In particular, those in religious authority over Israel.  Those who spoke as God’s intermediaries to the people.

The very ones who knew the written Word inside & out missed the Living Word walking in their midst.

And because He didn’t fit with how they felt a rabbi or prophet should, they too betrayed Jesus by asking for His death.

Not only did they betray their countryman, their brother in the faith out to Rome, they betrayed their God in the most personal way possible – to His face, and to the death.

Pilate, the overseer in Jerusalem as assigned by the occupying Rome, knew Jesus was who He said He was.  And in refusing to stand up for what was right, he allowed a crowd to sway him to release a dangerous convict, a group of religious leaders to convict an innocent man, and betrayed Jesus to a horrible death he knew He didn’t deserve.

Betrayed by His loved ones.
Betrayed by the people He loved.
Betrayed by the one with the power to stop it all.

I believe part of why Jesus poured out His heart in prayer so fervently to His Abba in Gethsemane was because He knew the anguish He was about to feel in His heart over the layers of betrayal about to take place.

But there is one more level of betrayal to this story.

Because almost the whole world has heard of this Jesus, and what He did for everyone.

And when people refuse to take in the nail pieced outstretched hand offered as a free gift to all who accept it?

We become one of the betrayers.

If Jesus is who He says He is, then our refusal to accept it places us somewhere in the Easter story we would rather not be….one of the crowd who started out singing “Hosanna,” then began to chant “Crucify Him.”

This Easter, I am giving up keeping silent about Jesus.  For I don’t want to deny the One I love when asked about who I follow. 

I don’t want to break His heart by not acknowledging all he has done for me.

I don’t want to be a betrayer, or deny-er in God’s story anymore.

And because of what Jesus did on that cross, I am free not to do so anymore!  I am His, and He is mine.

His sacrifice makes me whole again. I don’t need ever head down the path of betrayal if I walk with Him to the cross.

#snapshotsalongtheWay

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snapshots along the Way: He Knew

Karla Lees

You knew.

You knew that the same people who cried Hosanna as You entered Jerusalem were the same ones who would pick up the stones to judge one another’s sin, and nail You to the cross.

You knew.

You knew we all hide our brokenness under the cover of what we think others want us to be and the pain, shame and agony of holding in our sin & the sin done to us could not be set free any other way.

You knew.

You knew this before You came.
God with us.
Yet You came anyway.

You knew this & kept it in the forefront of Your thought as You helped landscape the earth, design the canopy of stars & planets in the skies above, fashion the depths of the ocean floors, hang the sun and moon in place and set the seasons on their annual rotation.

You knew.

You knew the man and woman You fashioned with such care and love would stray and break Your heart, and let sin enter us all, yet You went ahead with Your plan anyways.

Because You knew Your bride would be worth it.

Honestly God, there are times I don’t get it. Like Hosea, I struggle with the love You ask me to show, yet I know You love me so deeply and permanently, despite all I do.

You know.

You know me better than i know myself.

You know all of us this way.

And because of this love, hearing the inner cry of the broken we all cry within the secret places we keep hidden, You chose to come and be one of us.

To show us how depending 100% on Abba can make a difference in how we can live our lives.

To show us just how far Love will go to show the one He loves the enormity of His affection & longing.

To show us we never have to be alone again.

As we head along the journey once again towards the cross, may we take the time to admit we are the reason He had to head there.

We needed to see His love in action in order to get, to grasp, just how much He loves us.

He knew.

#snapshotsalongtheWay
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name the doubt & grab His hem

Karla Lees

I am more than a bit timid when it comes to asking God for something i want for myself.

In fact, I tend to ask for myself as a tag along, or add on at the end of praying for other people’s needs.

Which isn’t a healthy symptom at all.

You see, that likely means i am not submitting to the fullness of what God has for me.

By struggling to try and cope on my own, i miss out not only on the strength He has for me, but experiencing His care and growing in our relationship.

And I am oh so tired of caring for myself on my own.

I remember reading the verses about the woman with the bleeding issue when i was first a believer, and relating to her:

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.  Luke 8:43

I too have had an issue with cysts and heavy bleeding since i was 14 years old.  No one has been able to stop it here on earth. I am thankful that it has slowed with medical intervention & eating a healthier diet (staying away from too much caffeine along with all soy & dairy has helped develop less cysts and keep my hormones more in check), but it has not been healed so far…

And today, I acknowledge to myself, God and all of you,  my heart has stopped believing in my dream…. to be able to say the following as part of my testimony:

She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Luke 8:44

Boy, putting that into words both hurts and feels freeing to my spirit.

I say i believe, but my trust in His best plan for me has waffled over this issue….literally, of blood.

I believe, I know He can heal, for I have both seen it and experienced it in other ways.

But will He?

The Word reminds us God is our healer in many places, and how He has the best in store for those who love & follow Him.  I believe in that truth deep down.

His capability is not in question in my mind or heart.

His will is for me to be whole, fully restored, and healed.

But will He heal me in this area?

Ultimately, I know when I meet Him face to face as i enter eternity, I will be the me He planned for me to be since creation.  And i do draw comfort in that actuality, that fact yet to pass.

But will He heal me in this area now?

Timing becomes the question… I want His healing now.  I am weary of having spent 20 years of gross frustrating embarrassing and exhausting at times handling this issue.

And that is the crux of the problem.

I have been gripping this issue too tightly.

I have not fully let go of it and gripped on to His hem.

I am tired of trying to hold it all together, Lord.

I am letting go of my timing, my desires for You to heal  me on my terms.

I am grabbing the hem of Your robe, pressing in and refusing to let go.

Because I KNOW You want me healed.

I speak this out right now, I believe You’re my Healer.

You can, You want to, and You will heal me.

And until Your timing is released for this issue of blood to be removed from me, You will be more than enough to keep me in the midst of my struggle.

You have been for me since before I was born, and always will be.

I surrender my doubts that You don’t care about me enough to heal me, You may not ever heal me while I am here on earth, and I am not worthy to be healed.

Because of what You did on the cross, Jesus, You have made me worthy through the covering of Your blood. I can approach with confidence because the veil has been torn, and You invite me to come.  The One who rose from the grave? He is more than able.

And like the daughter in this story, I do not go unnoticed. You are keeping Your eye on me.

I pray that how the story ended for the woman in Luke 8 ends the same for me, but I am determined not be hiding when You do heal me, God, but shouting it from the rooftops. May You build in me the Rock solid faith I need for my healing to come to pass because of Your touch:

 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.  When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”  But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

Reader,  did you know its okay to have doubts?

Its not okay to keep your doubts hidden.

We need to bring them out into the light of His presence, so He can help us seem them in alignment with His truth, and who He is.

Doubts hidden become strongholds of the enemy, giving him space in our minds where he was never meant to roam, and begin to trap our spirits in chains from the pit.  

God made us to long for more.

Come as you are to God. He loves us as we are….whether wounded, broken, hurting, doubting, fearful, angry, insecure, lonely.  He never makes us feel bad for our feelings, but as He pours His love into us, we can be healed and made whole beyond imagining.

He is and always will be more than enough for all we need, and works tirelessly to bring His design for us into reality!

So I will never let go of Your hem God. Because close to You is where i was meant to be.

 

 

 
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3 ways words pack a wallop

Karla Lees

Many of us can recall a time when we were hurt by someone else’s actions.

But we likely all can remember a time when someone’s words hurt.

Words bypass race, size, religion, gender, class and strike right at the heart of us, often before we know it.

There are three ways we can be wounded by words have been wielded as a weapon:

Unintentionally:

Gossip can catch us off guard, and broken telephone can contribute to us being hurt when we hear things behind our backs.  Hearing your BFF actually hates your new dress but tells you how flattering it looks to your face because they know how much you like the color & they don’t want to hurt your feelings… still hurts when you realize they withheld the truth from you when asked for it.

Sometimes we don’t know the other person well enough to not accidentally make a comment slip (like how you dislike Timmy’s coffee and it turns out to be their favorite daily coffee place) and hurt their feelings.

Be careful what you say when you don’t know all the facts or people in a situation. Ask God for wisdom to help you steer clear of unintentionally using words that hurt.

Accusingly:

When we hear an accusation, we are all initially hurt: either by the truth, or by the lie.

The truth can pack quite the wallop when we are hiding from it, can’t it? There have been times when I need to catch my breath from its jab. The point of these words is to rebuild & restore us, despite the surgery that may be involved uprooting what shouldn’t be within us.

Unfortunately, the delivery method can pack as much of a punch as the words spoken.

When God speaks the truth to us, whether in His word or through another follower, it might be blunt but it is to be delivered with love and a desire for God’s best. Not the judgment that tends to slip out, which reveals the state of our own hearts.

Which leads me to the other way that an accusation can hurt: when its a lie.

You know, “lie” is a word I prefer not to use, because I like to lie down to rest, and I don’t like to use words in two ways when I have an options. Lies as a plural, is perfect. As a writer, word choice is important to me for setting the right background or revealing the best picture.

I choose to use the word “falsehood” for two reasons. False is the opposite of Truth, which also shows we are aligning ourselves with the enemy “hood.”

Falsehoods hurt because of their design. They are enemy snipers designed to take us down any way they can. When they are used by a non-Kingdom dweller, we aren’t as surprised, for we know who they are aligning with by association.

When falsehoods are used by a believer, a tear forms in the fabric of the Kingdom, and a tear falls from the face of its Leader.

We are not designed to speak what is false, but:

Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable —if anything is excellent or praiseworthy —think on such things.

Philippians 4:8 NIV

We are not to walk back into the enemy hood we have been delivered out of, but keep the best of the Kingdom on our hearts & in our minds, as the above verse suggests. Even more clear is the comparison seen in the Message version of the same verse below:

Fill your minds and meditate on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

Philippians 4:8 MSG

Which leads to the last way words can wound us when they are wielded as a weapon:

Deliberately:

This reveals more about the character of the speaker than the hearer.

Deliberately using your words, whether truth or false, shows you have a foot in the enemy hood, whether you would like to hear that or not:

Because you KNOW your word will hurt.

And that knowledge means you purposefully are aiming at another person to wound them.

Not cool.

I have been the recipient of deliberate, calculated falsehood in a time of great loss or shock, from those I adored.

Although I have forgiven them, the scar remains.

Those deliberate words? They are the bombs to the single gun shot of unintention and the Uzi of accusation.

Last Word:

All of these wound causing word weapons can come with a complication. How it impacts our relationship with the speaker of these words.

We need to run to God first to ask Him to separate how we have been hurt from the person who hurt us. Once we have dealt with the wounding, then we need to ask Him how we are to speak to the wounder. He may reveal an insight we could not know, and have us either set up a new boundary or reinforce our friendship, addressing the situation from His perspective.

Words hurt, but in His hands we can be fully healed.

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beautiful mess

Karla Lees

All around
Hope is springing up
from this old ground
Out of chaos
life is being found in You..

You make beautiful things
out of the dust
You make beautiful things
out of us

Beautiful Things, Tim Neufeld

God sees something beautiful in messy, broken me.

The same is true of you.

God looks at us, and sees what we may not be able to see in ourselves:
*promise
*hope
*His handiwork
*worth
*precious treasure
*His hands & feet
*our covering in Christ

He doesn’t see:
*our sin
*our failures
*when we strayed
*our mistakes
once we have given them over to Him.

He sees our messy chaotic lives, and sees beauty in our midst…because of Jesus.

Inviting Jesus in starts an internal reno that Holy Spirit will not complete until we meet God face to face in glory.

It means God sees the hope living within us, rather than our failure.

It means we have that living hope no matter what.

Broken in spirit, body, mind, heart?

Bound by sin?

Believing in enemy lies?

God doesn’t leave us there.
He restores our hope,
returns our dreams,
remolds our breaks,
redirects us to the right path.
He offers an embrace of grace when we think we deserve a slap in the face.

Take a walk through your bible.
Take a close look at the God you see enclosed in the truth contained within.
God doesn’t leave those who seek His Presence where He found them:
Abram > Abraham
Sarai> Sarah
Jacob> thief to head of Israel
Saul> Paul, killer of Christians to evangelist for Christ
David> shepherd to king, murderer & adulterer>man after God’s own heart
Solomon> overindulging philanthropist to wisest man & builder of His temple
Esther> pretty teenager to redeemer of her people
Rahab> prostitute to one of God’s chosen
Ruth> foreigner to beloved grandmother of David
Samson> playboy to judge, betrayer who God restored to mete out justice

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what God can do with a willing heart that beats for Him.

What we may see may be overwhelming pain, brokenness, mess beyond our ability to fix or clean…

Nothing is beyond His ability to repair.

God has never stopped being in the creation business.

When we look to Him, and choose to follow, He begins to restore us back to how He originally intended us to be: fully His.

His view of what is really going on is from His loving, eternal, all-knowing perspective.

We need to trust He knows what He is doing.

If we are listening, He will speak love, restoration and hope into our lives along the way.

Our situations do not limit His ability, they reflect humanity’s inability.

God chose to make us in His image, and will never stop restoring us until we are called home with Him.

And along the way, He makes beautiful things out of the dust, out of us.

Our hope is built on nothing less than the God of the universe.

Our beauty is not based on what we see, but His vision.

Our brokenness becomes something beautiful when we allow the Potter to remold us & give us His peace.

On the days when brokenness feels overwhelming, try to keep this truth in mind: When God looks at us, He sees something beautiful! Ask Him to give you clear direction and peace when you cannot see the beauty He sees.

Hey, if you want a few good tips on how to spot beauty in the broken on a hard day, especially a Monday, please visit: Beauty in Brokenness at POTSC.
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touchy touchy

Karla Lees

There are moments when we don’t want to be touched.

When we want to stay entrenched in our fury, stand on our injustices and refuse to allow the pressure to  release.

When we want to be right even though a little voice may be poking us to tell us we aren’t.

When we have lost what feels like our world from beneath us, our grief emanating from the depths of who we are.

When the pain radiates so strongly that the lightest of touches feels like a bee sting.

When we are too touchy and prickly in our woundedness.

These are the very moments God came to touch us in.

I have had several car accidents (as a passenger) that have left my neck & shoulders exceptionally tight.  I can feel relaxed everywhere else, but not in those two spots.  Prayer helps with the pain management, yet the work I do typing daily doesn’t help. 

I need the strong touch of my massage therapist or physiotherapist to help get the knots out, and smooth away my tense muscles.

If I go too long in between, I feel it.

In the same way, we were not designed to be solitary creatures, keeping ourselves removed from God’s loving touch.

We were meant to reach out and touch God. Our bodies, minds, emotions & spirit need His touch in order for us to let go of what needs to be uprooted or sloughed off under His soothing gentle yet firm touch.

Let God help you release the tension….
Get rid of that knot of burden you refuse to take off your back…
Help your stiff neck turn towards Him again…
Soothe the raw nerves as only He can….
Bring deep penetrating rest into the areas you may not even consciously be aware need it…

In the Old Testament, God kept Himself apart, and required distance from direct contact with His people.

Jesus arrived, and turned this on its head!

Jesus touched people everywhere He went…
the hurting,
the diseased,
the paralyzed,
the lonely,
the beggars,
the lepers,
the outcasts,
the grieving,
the children,
the ones seeking their last hope,
the untouchables,
even the dead.

Against all traditional beliefs in how God should treat people, God in Jesus touched lives beyond what we believed possible in a holy God.

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He touched our hearts as He did.

For all the world to see, Jesus reached out and embraced the cross. That touch reverberated through out known time and space, rippling out into heaven and eternity.

When He allowed man to touch Him, wound Him over & over, and crucify Him, He knew intimately how some touches can devastate us.

When He rose from the dead, He knew how much those He had left behind, His disciples & followers would need the real touch only a loving God can bring:
compassion
forgiveness
mercy
love
grace
kindness

He still offers this to us each and every day.

Are you ready for God to collide with you right where you are at? Embrace you, holding you closer than you can dare to imagine?

God’s touch brings the hurting, broken and dead areas in us back to life again.

Reach out and touch His outstretched hand.

All it takes is one touch for your life to change.

forgive me note

Karla Lees

Today, its time to write something fairly raw and honest.

I had to write a note and forgive someone today.

That person was me.

I still struggle with being too hard on myself. I have grace for everyone else, but me.

As I did this exercise tonight with my small group, i had a break through.

Forgiving myself is God’s plan for me, once I have sought His forgiveness. I have been blocking my own freedom by raging at myself for what God has already forgiven me for, and forgotten!

So here is my note, and the pic of what I chose to surrender to God tonight…

Dear ME,

God has given me grace, and is not holding my mistakes and wrongs against me.

So I choose to forgive me too.

If the one who has the right to judge me pardons me instead, I need to pardon myself too…
or else I don’t show Him the respect He deserves as my Saviour, or myself as His creation, the one He loves.

So, self?

Tomorrow is a new day,
just waiting for me to arise,
greet my God
and begin with a fresh start of grace.

You are forgiven, self, in Jesus’ name.

Love,
Me

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PS. You may need to forgive yourself or someone else too. I would suggest trying to write it out, draw it out or pull out the play dough and craft it out.  However you need to process it, make the time to listen for His prompting on who or what you need to forgive, and do it.

Stewing in unforgiveness doesn’t look good on us, and only hurts us by holding it in.  Shame tells us the game is over, God reminds us our life continues on & His Grace is enough.

~Mike Foster

Freedom awaits on the other side of guilt & shame.

Love breaks our call,
Grace carries us home.

~Bob Goff