PRAISE

 MAKING PEACE WITH YOUR PAST - PART 2

Remember in my last post where I was sharing some valuable information I picked on through listening to a sermon on making peace with your past? This is the continuation of what I started with. 

You may have had a doubt, fear, or worry but you kept the faith of which none of it made you backslide or walk away. It may look like you are going down, but you have to hold on to what you got left; hold on to what God gave you. You might have lost your friends, jobs, or family, but you got your faith. You've still got your faith, which is what the devil is after, not your job, your family, or your friends. If you keep on fighting, eventually you will get free, it may not be today or tomorrow but if you keep on fighting, eventually you are going to get free.  So you need to stay in the fight. Be encouraged that the next punch you may throw may be the last; swing when you don't even feel like swinging, punch when you don't feel like punching because God has a plan. People always talk about what you are running to but don't notice what you are running from. It is what happens behind you that determines how fast you move in front of you and if you don't make peace with your past, you will never accomplish what your past came to propel you into. There is a reason. Have you grown enough in your faith to pray for the people who let you down? You can't afford to die bitter, angry, upset, frustrated, and full of resentment because it's going to weaken your strength! Stop worrying about who didn't and use it as an opportunity to brag over how good God stood with you. If He stood with you, you ought to praise Him as He stood with you! He stood with you through it all. 

Making peace with your past doesn't just mean making peace with your sins, it means making peace with your station in life that is, getting to a place where you tell yourself you are good with it.  You are good with the fact that you still can see further than you will ever be able to go or reach, and if you are not good with that, you become bitter and of course, a hater, then you start trying to destroy people who have more time and energy than you do. One of the signs of maturity is when you have made peace with where you are in life. That is why the Bible says, "Godliness with contentment is a great gain''. To be content doesn't mean you don't have ambition or goals; it means not using your ambition to create frustration. You have got to be content to bloom where you are planted.

 To come to a place of contentment where you can lay down at night and be content doesn't mean you don't have anything or goals you go after, what it does mean is that, whether you get it or not, you are still going to be okay, whether they like you or not, you are still going to be okay, whether they clap for you or not, you are still going to be okay, whether they support or don't support you, you have come to a place of making peace with where you are in your life and you are good with what you went through because no one can make you feel good about you until you feel good about yourself. The only way to be effective is to go through enough that would change your outlook that you are good with where you are in life, and you are happy to be you and not trying to be anybody else. To prosper where you are, you have to be good with being you.  Thank those who rejected and left you because if they hadn't rejected you, you wouldn't have met those you had to meet, and won't be where you had to be. Matter of fact, they taught you how to be hungry enough, powerful enough, pray enough, be anointed enough, to stand on your feet! You are not in any race with anyone; even if the next person got something you don't have, know that you also have something they don't! So rather focus on enhancing what you've got than competing with the next person. In 2 Timothy 4:17, Paul said; " when people did not stand by me, the Lord stood with me."  Now, who would you rather have stood with you? Look at how many lions' mouths you've been in (friends you thought were friends but were enemies, being delivered from the things that could have devoured you). Everybody has got a lion; something that had you in its clutches. You should give God the praise for having delivered you from the mouth of whatever lion you are facing. Use whatever you have encountered in your past to prepare you for your future.

I would like to share these 4 WORDS, Bishop T.D. Jakes shared during his sermon;

1. RESTITUTION: Coming to a point in your life where you can't just take and not give back. There has to be some level of restitution. 

2. RESOLUTION: this is a point where you accept God's plan over your life, and you resolve in your mind that this is it.  For example, it takes a few hours to have a wedding, but it takes a long time to be married. You can be married and still be looking through a window at your own life. It takes a while for you to say; this is it, I'm on it, I just don't have one foot in it, I'm not just testing it out. It takes a long time for you to settle in. Resolution means that you have now accepted the course God has for your life. It means not being envious, comparing yourself or measuring up to the next person, and being good with who you are. You are good with the gifts you bring to the table; you're not intimidated by the next person. You have resolved that your gift is just as effective as the next person's. When God is trying to get you to a point where you are good with what He gave you, even if it is a rag and a rock, run on out there and throw it at your Goliath and watch him fall out. You cannot win the fight if you don't have confidence in your equipment. You cannot go out there and fight your Goliath acting like the next person because you are not the next person.  The next person's shield and sword may be beautifully well-polished, and all shiny but you have no experience with that, but you sure do know how to work your rock and rag. While the next person is laughing at how stupid you are, you would have done more with the rag and rock than they did with their sword and shield so they mustn't intimidate you with what they have got. When Moses went to God and told him he can't speak because he stammers, God asked him; "did I not make your mouth?" When are you going to be good with how God made you? Resolution is whatever age you are at; you are happy to be who God made you be. You're in the right body, you look just right, you are who you are supposed to be; you are as smart as you need to be, and you are gifted in the areas that you need to be gifted in to do what God created you to do and in areas that you are not gifted in, it simply means you are not supposed to be gifted in those areas which made room for you to get other people around you.

3. RECIPROCITY:  this is very important. This has to do with sowing and reaping (the seed time and harvest). You need to get this; every relationship whether it is business, personal, financial, or emotional will only survive to the degree that there is reciprocity. You have to make sure that there is reciprocity. Never let anybody be better to you than you are to them, you might not give them back the same thing, but you've got to give them back something or it will die. Reciprocity is critical and necessary, and it is not taught so now we have people who are better at taking than they are at giving and then can't figure out why the thing dies. It dies because you rode the camel to death; you rode them down to nothing. While the earth remains, there will always be reciprocity. Don't just let people give to you and you say "oh that is just how he is, he is just like that, he is just that kind of person, she is just so nice, she is very thoughtful, sweet, that is her nature, and you don't ever reciprocate? You will kill the relationship! For all you take, you got to make sure that in every area of your life there is reciprocity. Look for areas in your life where books are out of balance, where people, jobs, things, or churches are giving you more than you give back because if you don't have reciprocity, don't be surprised when it dies. You have to make sure you are as good at giving as you are at taking. Reciprocity stops you from being unlovable because you are ungiven. Reciprocity should be a natural animalistic instinct that starts in your children. A lot of you are losing and you don't know why you are losing. You are losing because you are not as intense about giving back as you are about getting. It is always all about you and as long as it is all about you, you are killing somebody, and generally, it is somebody who loves you. Feed what is feeding you. 

4. REPARATIONS:  to everyone whose account is out of balance, worn out, tired, and you give more than you get back, God is saying don't worry about it; if they don't pay you, He will. He's going to pay you to double for your troubles, if they don't bless you, He will; if they don't appreciate you, He will; if they don't restore you, He will. I pray this message isn't casting pearls on swine. Try and use this message to make yourself a better person and break free from the yoke of selfishness so that you will stand by the people who stand by you. Feed what is feeding you! All we need for the world to continue is RECIPROCITY. If you are going to be a better person, do it now. Stop taking the people around you for granted and try to give back to them in the way you can. Make it easy for people to love you and the quickest way for people to love you is to make sure there is reciprocity, and your account is balanced.  Bring balance into your life. You might be losing your relationships not because you're not a good person, but because you haven't learned reciprocity with the people around you, the communities you live in, the church you attend, etc. Do not let the enemy talk you into thinking you are better at receiving than you are at giving. It matters how you feel but it also matters how they feel too. It doesn't matter how much you shout, sing, or dance to glorify God if we don't change. God let us continue being who we were after all we've been through.

Through Olaudah Equiano's story who was a slave turned entrepreneur and writer, what he told us in his life story is everything we go through has to make us a better person. We cannot serve the Lord when we are overcome with ourselves. We need to let go of our hurt and make peace with our past no matter how difficult is and step into the fullness of what God has for us. Bring something to the table other than yourself.