“They broke my heart.”
“They stabbed me in the back.”
“They left me.”
We all have people that come and go in our lives. Some are a blessing. Some are a lesson.
Personally, I’m a very sensitive person. I take things to heart. I get very invested in all of my friendships/relationships. I care & love deeply. So, when life happens people leave. It’s part of it. My heart has been so heavy with true forgiveness lately.
I would say, “Oh yeah, I forgive you.”
But then my heart would sink into my stomach every time I heard their name or saw them.
For me, it’s always been hard to look at situations that haven’t worked out and think of them not as a ‘waste’.
When I was doing my devotions the other day, the writer Priscilla Shirer, spoke about a old broken mailbox that was rusted and falling apart. It was broken. As she walked closer, a bird flew out of it. She looked inside and found a nest full of baby birds. The old mailbox had become the nesting ground for NEW life.
All those memories. All that pain. You’ve been looking at all the hurt. You’ve been focused on all the darkness of it. God wants to bring new life there.
Yes. Even there. Even them. You have to allow Him to come into those places that you have cut from your mind. True healing. Real forgiveness.
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
- Matthew 5:44-45
Jesus said you can’t just forgive them, but pray for them too. Man. That hit me so hard the other day.
“But God they aren’t worthy.” I prayed.
And He spoke to me gentle, “And you are?”
Tears rolled down my face. True forgiveness. Love like Jesus loves us.