Grace – What’s So Amazing About It?

Recently, I’ve read some comments to my Facebook friends’ status updates that made me wonder, how in the world can someone be so bitter and angry at life? Then it hit me.

Before I continue, let me add a disclaimer –

I am not a trained psychologist, psychotherapists, or counselor of any kind. I am not a Bible scholar nor a theologian. I only offer my opinion based on my personal experiences.

Unforgiveness is cancer of the soul. It will eat away at you and destroy your life. It is a spiritual poison and silent killer. Once unforgiveness takes root, it silently grows and takes over your entire being.

God promised sickness and illness to fall on the Israelites when they chose to not follow Him in obedience.

Be careful to obey everything in these teachings that are written in this book. You must respect the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ or the Lord will give terrible diseases to you and your descendants. You will have long and serious diseases, and long and miserable sicknesses. ⁶⁰ He will give you all the diseases of Egypt that you dread, and the diseases will stay with you. ⁶¹ The Lord will also give you every disease and sickness not written in this Book of the Teachings, until you are destroyed. Deuteronomy 28:58-61 (NCV)

I have seen bitterness and anger that seem to permeate generations.

“I am the Lord. The Lord is a God who shows mercy, who is kind, who doesn’t become angry quickly, who has great love and faithfulness ⁷ and is kind to thousands of people. The Lord forgives people for evil, for sin, and for turning against him, but he does not forget to punish guilty people. He will punish not only the guilty people, but also their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, and their great-great-grandchildren.” Exodus 34:6-7

God also promised a cure for this.

If you worship the Lord your God, I will bless your bread and your water. I will take away sickness from you. Exodus 23:25

The Lord will take away all disease from you; you will not have the terrible diseases that were in Egypt, but he will give them to all the people who hate you. Deuteronomy 7:15

Jesus give us two commandments to follow

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’³⁸ This is the first and most important command. ³⁹ And the second command is like the first: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ Matthew 23:37-39

This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12

Unforgiveness is deadly. We can choose to live a life rooted in bitterness and unforgiveness or we can choose the opposite and live a life filled with the richness of God’s Grace. Remember – Grace Changes Everything. It all starts with forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well.

WOW! That’s tough. Yes it is, but it is possible – with God’s help.

Many of us learned to recite The LORD’S prayer as a child. But do we really understand the words we say?

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one,
for yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.
Matthew 6:9-13 NIV)

Notice verse 12 above. We are to ask God for forgiveness just as we forgive others when they sin against us.  The next two verses are just as important –

¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

I cringe when I hear people tell me they cannot forgive someone because the hurt or pain is too deep. When I explain that their unforgiving spirit is the root of their bitterness, they generally blow me off as a religious fanatic. At that point, all I can do is say, “I’ll pray for God to open your eyes so you can see the miracles of His teachings.” Psalm 119:16

The Apostle John recorded Jesus saying “A thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I came to give life—life in all its fullness.” John 10:10

Has bitterness due to an unforgiving spirit taken root in your life? Have you tried to rid your soul of an unforgiving spirit but just can’t do it? Without Christ, you can do nothing. The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

You CAN break free from the grip unforgiveness has on your life. But you cannot do it alone. You can only do it after receiving the free gift of Grace because Grace changed everything.

Satan will remind you that you are not good enough for Jesus. He will remind you that your past cannot be forgiven. When this happens, tell Satan that the Jesus who defeated him on the Cross is the same Jesus who has removed the bitterness and unforgiving spirit from your life. Remind Satan that you are now a Child of the King and he has no authority over you!

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Have you been changed by Grace? If so, I would love to hear your story. If not, do you know Jesus personally just like you know your spouse, child or parent?

The Bible says:

1. All have sinned (Romans 3:23)
2. The price for sin is death (Romans 6:23)
3. Jesus died for our sins (Romans 5:8)
4. By declaring with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believing that Jesus has risen from the grave I can be saved (Roman 10:9-10)

Anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved. The choice is yours.

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.