Today's reading I highly recommend for everyone to read, it's about forgiving the offender. Please take time to read all of 2 Corinthians 2.
TRAUMATIC incidents are those which shatter the soul or mind. For instance, someone is victimized in a horrendous situation, like being raped by their father or witnessing a murder. This traumatizes and shatters the soul leaving a bruise that never heals. A jolt comes to our mental system.
I remember a couple years ago working with a young women that was traumatized by her father at a young age. Her mental memories needed to be unshackled, the haunted memories of the past rape had stolen her joy in her marriage and family life.
When we suffer from a traumatized incident in our lives, regardless of how the trauma occurred it leaves the victim in an injured state. When we have a crack in our soul it allows the evil spirit to take up residence in those cracks.
ANGER
DRUG AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION
FEAR
ABANDONMENT
PANIC ATTACKS
REJECTION
DEPRESSION
ISOLATION
Do one of these represent a piece of your brokenness?
God does not want our past to prevent us from moving forward into the future. God also does not want us to create bad habits due to a pain from the past. So what is a start for those shackled to his or her past enjoy true freedom?
FREEDOM ONLY FOLLOWS FORGIVENESS
THIS IS TOUGH I KNOW...
I had to learn to forgive myself and another for hurt in my life at one time. I learned to understand the Jesus sweat great drops of blood out of His brow, He shed those to my mind and soul could be healed. My healing has been paid for and so has yours.
If you decide to never recognize God's solution for your mental healing and hurts you will stay shackled forever. You will become a victim to the worldly methods of healing in the form of sedatives, coping mechanisms and more.
Forgiveness will heal your cracks and God will teach you to forgive through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let me share 7 steps to help you move forward into Gods plan.
These are only actions steps to help you start experiencing God in your trauma.
Before anything else, you have to know why you’re forgiving someone. You have to see that the person has offended you – did the person take something away from you? Did that person ruin your image? Did that person shame you? Whatever that person did to you, you have to acknowledge that it happened and that it did affect you and you were hurt. Unless you do this, forgiveness won’t seem like an option because there was no offense in the first place.
Know what you’ve lost
Before you build your house, you have to count the cost. Same as when you’re re-building yourself, you have to count what it will take to recover what you’ve lost. What did you lose? How hard did it hit you? You have to know the extent of your loss. Unless you do this, you can never appreciate how much God will move through you when you have forgiven that person.
Focus on God
Forgiving simple, petty things might be easy and doable. But there will come a time in your life when you will face a colossal problem – chances are you will find it next to impossible to forgive a certain someone in your life. When you keep focusing on that person and his or her finitude, you will always be disappointed and you will always opt not to forgive – taking the easy way out.
When push comes to shove and your heart is hardened to forgive, don’t focus on the sins done against you. Focus on God and see how much He’s done for you. Then you will see that your forgiveness is but an easy race for the prize in this track called life.
Confess any sinful reaction towards the offense
Chances are you will take it to heart when you are offended. You might say cuss words, hold on to hate and bitterness, and/or do things that are not pleasing to God altogether. These reactions do you no good. It’s the coward’s way of handling an offense. You have to confess it to God and to a close friend or your accountability partner in order for you to be freed from the burden of your own sins against unforgiveness.
Bitterness and anger are burdens too heavy for you to carry
Ask God to save you and depend on Him
Sometimes you will find yourself far too deeply en rooted in bitterness, anger and hate towards the person who has offended or sinned against you. You can no longer find it in yourself to forgive and to love. This is the time when you ask God to save you – you have to depend on Him or else this sin of unforgiveness will enslave you for the rest of your life. And what a big, heavy burden it is.
I tell you the truth, once you break yourself down on God and ask for His help, He will help you. There’s no magic, but there’s God.
Give it up to God
After you’ve decided to forgive and have asked God to help you, you have to give it up to Him. You have to throw it away, cast it down at His feet, never to remember or take hold of it again. When you’ve really given it up to God, you can’t fish out for it anymore, you can’t dig it up anymore.
Set your heart free
Once you know you’ve given it up to God and He’s given you peace, set your heart free. Know that the guilt of hate and bitterness can be conquered by Him. Trust in Him and hold on to Him rather than to unforgiven.
BE FORGIVEN AND FORGIVE,
