PRAISE

 MAKING PEACE WITH YOUR PAST- PART 1

Sometimes all you can do is say WOW. Every now and then, God does a wonder. A wonder is when God does something, and you are dumbfounded on how he did it. Have you ever had Him do a wonder in your life? That's what they mean by "I don't know how, but I made it. I don't understand it, but I made it. 

Seasoning in life as seen in 2 Timothy 4: 2, comes through suffering. It doesn't just come with age. There are people who through the things and events they go through become well-seasoned. When you are well-seasoned, you will have learned how to have and how to be in want. To be seasoned, you have to endure fluctuations. A lot of people are good at giving pain but are not good at taking pain. Sometimes, you can be so full of where you come from that you can't see where you are going. Even those who embraced Jesus were reluctant to receive Him because of His past/background. Every time you go through a test, it takes something out of you, you survived it, but it took something out of you. You made it but it took something out of you. You endured it but it took something out of you. You made it out, but it took something out of you.  You made it through the scandal, but it took something out of you, and little by little you lose more and more. It's not age but it's the experiences that took your strength to survive.

You should therefore realise you can survive and still suffer.  You can survive and it will still cost you something. You survived the divorce, but it cost you something. You survived that relationship, but it cost you something; You survived the teenage pregnancy, but it cost you something, you survived the addiction, but it cost you something until little by little, people don't realise how much has gone out of your cup to still be standing.  It is not the years, it is the mileage; it is the things you went through, the things you suffered from, the antagonisms you endured; the betrayal you went through, the friends who rejected you, the deceit you endured, and it took all of your strength and might for you to get back up.

You get to the middle of your life, and you begin to wonder, was it worth it? Do I have what I'm expected to have to show for being at the stage I am at in my life right now? Am I appreciated? Am I valued? Am I validated? Am I loved? This is what usually goes through a thinking mind trying to balance and account before closing the chapter. Sometimes, people will give you a name but never forget who you are. Life may call you a name but never forget who you are.  No matter what gives you a name NEVER FORGET WHO YOU ARE. Don't let people or issues take away your identity just because of your circumstance or situation. Trials and disappointments can work our good. You may feel God may have permitted these things to teach you wisdom; remember that He has shadowed you with the wings of His mercy and by His invisible but powerful hand brought you the way you knew not. He allowed this to happen and if He allowed you to suffer, you should encourage yourself in the goodness of the Lord that if He allowed you to go through this kind of suffering there is something that He wants you to get out of or He wouldn't have allowed it to happen. You may be holding on by a thread, but you can tie a knot from it and hold on to it. Have you ever been through enough suffering that you were hanging on by a thread and holding on by the skin of your teeth? Sometimes you may have felt like dying, giving up, or committing suicide but there was just a little ray of light coming into the dark just enough for you to press your way through the storm and the rain. It is the way you talk to yourself that determines whether you can endure hardships or not, whether you can stand affliction or not. It is what you choose to think about that determines whether you have decided to focus on the bitterness of your disappointment or become a better person through your disappointment.  The truth of the matter is, that there is not a single person who has not had their pleasure mingled with sorrow.  You either get better or bitter; you either allow the pain to engulf you or you rise to something above it that blows your mind and sets you apart on a different level. ARE YOU GOING TO GET BITTER OR BETTER?

Sometimes you might have had a doubt, fear, or worry but you kept the faith of which none of it made you backslide, made you walk away. It may look like you are going down but hold on to what you got left; hold on to what God gave you. You lost your friends, but you got your faith, you lost your job, but you got your faith, you lost your family, but you got your faith, you 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, it may not be 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 they 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 stand with you 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 like He stood with you! He stood with you through it all.

Please read the next post.