I’m under God’s conviction.

There’s this person in my life I thought I’d forgiven long ago. That is, until I realized I didn’t want to bless this person, give to them, or pray for them. At just a mention of their name, yucky emotions made me annoyed.

Why am I still so upset?

You can’t just brush offenses under a rug like dirty crumbs and expect them to self-clean. There they sit there, until one day you pull back the covers to see the disgust of what you’ve left untended.

It is not pretty.

The unforgiveness we leave unchecked goes unhandled. What goes unhandled grows uncontrollably. Ungodly growth has ruined a soul or two.

Friends, don’t discount even the smallest amount of growth. A little touch of poison ivy can cause immense bodily agony. A poisonous bite from the wrong insect can send one to their deathbed in a minute. A weed can take over a bed of flowers in a flash.

I am not trying to invoke fear, but I am trying to say this: a little unforgiveness can cause much distress within a soul and body.

We don’t want this and shouldn’t allow it. So, let’s plant a stake in the ground. God has far better for us.

We must break down the set-up of unforgiveness in our heart and return back to love. What the enemy has purposed to ruin us, we must let go so God can remake us. It is the only way true love prevails.

Who do you need to forgive today? Might you consider letting go of the thousand hurts they still inflict on you in exchange for one simple act of letting go?

I am going to join you in this process right now.

Here we go:

Father God, we feel angry, hurt, irritated, alone, ____ and left behind by this person. We hate how they made us feel. Yet, we are thankful that you, Jesus, sympathize with our pain. Not only this, you understand it. You know pain; you know the cross. You also know humility. Although the pain is real, we let go of what hurt is still hurting us. We clear room for your new life. We welcome in your grace. We give you the offense right now. We breathe in grace and breathe out what unforgiveness does not belong to us anymore. We breathe in the love you have for us, we breathe out the shame we feel for holding on to this for so long. We accept what Jesus did on the cross today and we celebrate it. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

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Do you ever wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Or maybe you start your day doing great, only to end it feeling poor.

I understand.

I sit here feeling kind of blah.

Blah because I don’t know how God will handle everything I’m concerned about.
Blah because I know that I should know: God has everything handled.
Blah because I still feel irritated at people I am desperately trying to forgive.
Blah because I’m not really accepting the grace Jesus died for.
Blah because I want to connect with God, yet I feel ashamed to.
Blah because it is weird to tell people you’re feeling these kinds of things.

Blah. Blah-dee. Blah-blah.

So, I pray, “Here in the place of blah, God, what do you have for me?” And here’s what He empowers me to do:

If Jesus busted out of the tomb, so can I.

If the dull sounds of guilt-ridden religiosity didn’t hold Jesus back from new life, neither should my sins.

If Jesus left me peace, it is mine for the taking.

If He forgave me, I can forgive others.

If there are new mercies every day, I can seize them right now.

If Jesus died to cover me with grace, covered I am.

If I don’t know what to do, I can lean not upon my own understanding, trust Him and know: He’ll make my paths straight.

If I feel disappointed by my lot in life, I can give thanks for the whole lot of stuff I do have.

If I wonder if people will ever change, I can simply praise Him for my inner-change.

If I can’t forgive myself, I can remember how Jesus’ death on the cross proves He already has.

If I feel unloved, I can remember His constant never-ending outpouring love from above.

“If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” Ro. 8:31-32

“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? …No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” Ro. 8:35, 37

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ro. 8:38-39

 

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I had a really hard talk with a friend. I told her some things that needed to be said. Her face looked sad.

I didn’t want to say all these things, but I felt God wanted me to. The words were supposed to be encouraging. I tried to do this the best I could, but sensed I was failing. She listened. She nodded and soaked it all in.

We understood each other. It was all good.

But after she left, I felt crushed.

Does she still love me? What if she leaves me?

Does the idea of confrontation ever make you want to cover up because you fear you’ll be left unwanted?

I’ve noticed that in the past I left people before they left me, in order not to get hurt.

God help me. I don’t want to do that again. 

Frankly, I often don’t realize what my flesh is doing until my Spirit realizes it’s too late. But is it? Is it ever too late to return to love? It can sure feel like it. It can feel like it when memories of relationships are severed. Or the way you approached something can’t be taken back. It can feel you’ve gone down a one-way road leading to continually hurt feelings inside you.

I always mess up.

Are you there today? Do you feel you’ve ruined a relationship in a way that can’t be fixed?

5 Truths when Relationships Appear Broken

1. We are not perfect, nor will we ever be. On earth, we are moving from one glory to another. This means we start at a lesser glory, learn through a trial about God’s glory, and grow up into His greater glory. Life = Learning. We are learners.

2. God’s love is steady and sure. We may do what God wants, but man may still leave us. This doesn’t mean we didn’t: Do what God wanted us to, love well, and handle things correctly. It means that life gets sticky and sometimes people need time to process.

3. Our God is a God of new beginnings. Just as Jesus found new life after He gave up his own life at the cross, sometimes we must give up our pride to find new life in a relationship. This looks like humbling ourselves, saying sorry, and moving into the new thing God has for us.

4.  We all want to be loved. While we look at our stack of mess-ups, reasons we’re right or issues surrounding the relationship, others are doing the same thing. They want healing too. They want restored connectedness also. Understanding others’ perspectives always comes before judging them. This posture lets us kneel instead of cowering before others. Whose heart doesn’t open up when you see someone kneeling before you?

5. We get grace. Lots of it. It is abundant. Magnificent. Restorative. Full of opportunities to start over. Take it, in full-measure. God loves us. We are covered by the blood of Jesus. This means that by turning back to God and letting him take what we’ve done wrong, we get a covering, a protection and a start-over that our soul longs for. Things may not be perfect with others, but we look perfectly blameless in the sight of our God.

 

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Have you ever asked these questions?

God, where are you?
God, why haven’t you shown up by now?
God, don’t you have a better plan – than this?
God, you need to come through for me. What do I need to do?

I’ve asked this a lot. After all the battles I’ve gone through (health, mental, financial and emotional), I’ve asked this time and time again. In fact, I’ve fretted and tried to figure out why God isn’t doing what I want him to.

He usually answers back with something like this:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:8-9)

As if He is saying, “Daughter, lay down your demands for predictability and safety to come, follow me.”

Jesus is always inviting us somewhere. The question is – will we go?

You know, we don’t make just one decision to follow Jesus and throw in the towel. We do it again-and-again, day-after-day, minute-by-minute. We do it everytime we choose to disagree with the mayhem we see, in order to believe the truth of God’s Word within our mind.

This is following Jesus. This is being Battle Ready.

Being Battle Ready is getting to this question: “God, how in the world do I leave it all behind, to follow you, yet again?”
Then, listening
Being willing to accept a new plan.
Moving forward with it.
Fighting enemies attacks.
Pushing back against lies.
Seizing truth in our heart, through practical ways.
Giving love out to the world.

When we do this faith comes easy. Believing the God-0f-miracles happens more seamlessly.

I wrote my upcoming book, Battle Ready: Train your Mind to Conquer Challenges, Defeat Doubt and Live Victoriously, because I wanted a clear-cut plan to know what to do – when my mind went ballistic because it “didn’t know what to do”. Why? Because, I’ve gone through battle after battle, relationship problem after relationship problem, health concern after health concern. You name it, I’ve probably faced it.

I wanted strategy on how to stay close, strong, confident and steadfast. I wanted to get pro-active rather than reactive. I wanted to learn how to really allow God’s truth, promises and scripture to dwell in my mind.

While writing this book, God laid out scriptural plans, bible verses, how-to steps, habit-changing tips. I discovered how to create a personalized Battle Plan. You’ll create your-own Battle Plan too.

Want the insiders track to progress? Want to get all my exclusive freebies, devotionals, scripture on battle, little insights, live prayer meetings, plus join a band of women on-fire for Jesus?

Consider joining my launch team (Yes, YOU!!! All are welcome!).

Get the inside scoop on the book.  Printables. Video devotionals. Live prayer with Kelly. My arsenal of Battle-scripture. Group-support. All the Pre-order bonuses. Weekly accountability. A physical thought-changing gift. A Mini-Prayer Journal.

You’ll do little things, like:

Sharing the book with your small group or women’s minister
Spreading the word about it on social media.
Writing an Amazon review (which is so helpful).
Encouraging my heart.
Sharing it with your people (if you are a blogger)

Just pre-order a book today, then join the group here. Don’t delay.  200 also get a free book sent to them.

Bonus for bloggers, authors, women’s ministers and leaders: Also get my whole Platform Writing and Speaking Coaching Series for free in the group. This is 15+ expert coaching videos that will help you build an audience and speak to them in ways that move their hearts.

Pre-order! And sign up for the launch team today.

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