Forgive One Another and Be Healed

"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." Eph 4:31-32

We all have things that we hold on to. I suppose there is security in holding on; like a blanket or a pacifier to a young child. Even after we are saved and we promise to give our hearts to God and walk with Jesus Christ daily we continue to carry those burdens into our new lives with Christ. We fool ourselves into thinking that because we accept Christ as our Saviour that the burdens and the past will melt away in the euphoria of our salvation. Not exactly! When we give our hearts to Him, we have work to do. In fact, we may discover that we have burdens we didn't realize after we walk with God awhile.

No, just like when we went forward or we prayed a prayer and asked God to step into our lives, we also have to physically with some and spiritually with all our burdens "let go" of them. If we are grasping hold of our anger toward another, or hanging on to an addiction we cannot take hold of Jesus' hand and allow him to lead us. If we harbor resentment, jealousy or lust in our hearts there is no room for God there to heal us from them. We must make the first move our selves with these burdens of our former selves and release our grip on them so that we can grab hold of something new.

I have learned so much in my walk with God but letting go seems to have been the most difficult lesson. God however, is patient and has allowed me to release them over time while revealing new ones that I didn't realize I held onto. Like a parent, God loves us through these issues but we must trust him and give the problem to him freely and keep our hands off while he heals the wounds and replaces the burden with more of him.

Its a wonderful experience but you have to make the first move.

My prayer. Father thank you for your gift of salvation through your one and only Son. Thank you that you love your children so much that you want none of us to suffer the burdens that we have taken from the devil and have carried all of our lives. Not all of these hurts we asked for, some of them were done to us by people who were supposed to love and care for us, but none the less we still hold onto the pain because that is all we have ever done. Help us Lord to trust you enough to release our grip on the hurts and the burdens of our past. Replace them with more of your love and lead us Lord into new lives of service to you and our brothers and sisters who are still lost and carrying their own loads. We want to be free Lord and take hold of the good things that you want to give your children. Thank you Lord! I pray all of these things in Jesus mighty name, Amen!