Today's Sunday Sentiments has absolutely nothing to do with saving money, clipping coupons or the like. Well, actually, you could consider it a FREEBIE, because I have a Word given to me straight from God and I have no idea if it will help anyone else, but at this very moment, I needed it...so I want to share something with you about the greatest FREEBIE I've ever received in my life. It's called FORGIVENESS.
I hope you will watch this video in it's entirety. The introduction of Yolanda Adams is lengthy (much deserved!) and if you watch long enought to hear Yolanda speak, I know it is a Word in due season. It definately is for me and she spoke directly to my heart at the exact moment in time when I needed to hear it.
I believe that we live in a world that is so unforgiving. People are so very quick judge you and condemn you, even if it is for something you did 10 years ago. With all the publicity and talk shows and knowledge of how childhood experiences and life in general can effect people their entire lives, we are still so quick to condemn and judge. We may look and see someone we once knew and say "Oh, she's on drugs now" or "She's running around on her husband" or whatever the case may be. We don't stop and think of what circumstances were so horrible in someones life that led them down that road of bad decisions. We're just so quick to judge, without knowing any of the mitigating factors. When did we all become so perfect that we can be this insensitive?
The video above is an exerpt from the Sisters In Spirit Conference in 2007. I listened to another exerpt and the words really burdened my heart for those who would judge me and for any "judgements" that I've ever also been so quick to make about anyone. I pray that I will never be on the "giving" end of it again, as I know the pain of being on the "receiving" end, all too well.
NEVER let people condemn you for who you USED to be or what you USED to do. The Operative Phrase here is : USED TO !!
Because yes, they might be right. Maybe we did do that or maybe we were that person. But let me just tell you what GOD did...you see, He loves us unconditionally. Absolutely without a doubt, He Loves us exactly as we are. Because HE KNOWS who He created us to be. HE KNOWS that the gutter we fell in or maybe even through ourselves into way back then, was for a purpose, greater than we can even grasp. He allowed it to happen for a reason. And He loved us enough to pull us out, brush us off and set us back on the right path. He chose to forgive us for whatever horrible mistake, sin, or unspeakable things that we had done, just like He forgives the one that is now speaking those horrible things and making those accusations against us.
And as Yolanda Adams spoke best, He knew that we were tough enough to go through it, tough enough to let those judgements roll right off our back and yet tender enough to pray for the ones that make them. Tender enough to forgive them, because they must not know what a great God we serve and how once He gets in your heart, there is no turning back. There is no looking back. There IS NO Regret. There IS NO Shame. It was all for a purpose and PRAISE GOD for choosing us to be the one that just might have stooped low enough in our life to be able to squat back down to that level and help someone else stand back up.
As the saying goes...there is no shame in my game. I have no regrets in my life. Anything and everything I've ever done - good, bad or indifferent was for a purpose and my God had a plan.
Like Yolanda said..."Watch how you treat people".. Because it's more about YOU than it is about them...and that's a lesson I hope I NEVER have to learn again!
Thank you for posting that. It's God's word for me, today, too. But not about forgiveness, about timing. Trying to do things our own way, on our own schedule. That is exactly what the burden of my heart has been lately - wanting Him to tell me right this instant how I'm supposed to accomplish what I know He has for me to do. I need to remember to 'Be still and know that He is God.
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