Do you know people who
like to carry around old baggage everywhere they go? They can't let go of
anything. It is as though they just can't let go of the past. They deprive
themselves of freedom because they can't forget what someone did to them 10
years ago.
You can't get the most
out of today if you are continually rehashing the hurts and disappointments of
yesterday. When someone has hurt you, ruined your character in some way or said
something to offend you, it is not easy to let go of it.
Our natural tendency is
to hang on to it. No one said it is easy, but opening up your heart and letting
go of things of the past is the most exhilarating and life-altering things we
can do.
Our Lord taught by
saying, "Judge not, and you shall not be judged." We have no right to
judge others even in the smallest matters. We don't have that right because God
didn't give us that right.
James said, "Speak
not evil of one another, brethren. He that speaks evil of his brother and
judges him, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law. If you judge the law,
you are not a doer of the law, but a judge."
He goes on to say,
"There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and destroy: who are you that
judge another" (James 4:11-12).
I don't see how it could
be any plainer than this. As we don't have the right the judge others, by the
same token, others don't have the right to judge us. Some people love to point
out other people's faults and short-comings.
We don't have to worry
about what others say about us because what they think of us doesn't matter.
What matters most in life is the way we live for the Lord Jesus Christ and that
do the things that are pleasing to Him. We should treat other people kindly and
with respect as the Lord would have us.
Jesus continued in Luke
6:37 by saying, " Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned: forgive,
and you shall be forgiven." It's a guarantee! It is a fact! We can count
on it. We can stand firmly on this promise and know most assuredly that it is
true.
We should be forgivers
of those who have wronged us because He has forgiven us.
The greatest way that we
can show Christian charity is by letting go of the bitterness and resentment we
may harbor in our hearts toward those who have used and taken advantage of us.
In the next verse, He
said, "Give, and it shall be given." This is not a maybe. This is not
a hope-so kind of thing where you have to believe it is true, but we can know
with absolute certainty, beyond the shadow of any doubt that this is true.
It's amazing how things
can come back to you. When we do a good deed for someone or say a kind word, it
will always come back to us in some way. There are those times when we don't
feel like giving times when you feel that it's just not worth it times when you
feel like you give and give till you can't do it any more. But what we have to
remember is that we are doing it unto the Lord.
When we are in favor
with God and doing our best to serve Him, He will bless us in ways which we
can't imagine. When we are walking in the ways of God, we should expect the
manifestations of God to be on our lives.
Many people don't
experience the abundance of God's blessings on their life because they don't
expect them. If we are seeking God's goodness and favor to be on our lives,
they will surely come because this is the kind of God we serve.
We serve a God of wealth
and of plenty. He is not in short supply. The Psalmist David says that
"The earth is the Lord's and the fullest thereof; the world and they that
dwell therein" (Ps. 24:1). In another place in Psalms it says that God
owns "the cattle on a thousand hills."
There are those who are
making the mistake of assuming that just because they have something that they
own it. This is not entirely true.
Just because you paid
for it and have possession of it doesn't mean that you own it. You might have
the deed to your house, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you own it.
The money and
possessions that we have down here in this life are just on loan to us by God.
The scriptures say that we brought nothing into this world and we surely will
take nothing out.
The things that are most
important are the things you can't buy. You can't buy another person's love.
You can't buy a rainbow or a tree, the air we breathe, the health we enjoy or
the relaxing sounds of the waves on the seashore.
All these blessings are
ours no matter who we are or where we live. It does not matter if we are rich
or poor or the color of our skin or what nationality we may be. All blessings
we enjoy each day come from God, and all He asks is that we enjoy them and to
give Him praise.
While all these
blessings of God are good, the greatest of them all is His love. We are told
from His Word that He loved the world so much that He gave His only Son. Why
did He do this? He did it that we may have everlasting life.
By asking Him to forgive
us our sins and to come into our lives as our Savior and Lord, we get God's
greatest gift.
By Billy Edwards
