Encouraging Words from Barbara Francis

It is inevitable in a fallen world that offenses will come. Each time, we face a choice to nurse unforgiveness and bitterness or receive the offense as an opportunity to grow in God. When we have been wounded, we too often focus on getting fixed, instead of getting more of God! Too many of our prayers are about fixing some person or situation to our satisfaction. God says, “You don’t need to fix the person or circumstances. You need Me! Put your hand in mine! Stay committed to seeing Me in this. I am inviting you to go to a deeper place in My heart.”
                           -Sylvia Gunter

We are wounded.

Physical wounds are ugly—raw, unhealed, bloody, and needing fast attention. Spiritual wounds are just as unsightly and equally in need of the healing touch of Christ. This would be an easier conversation if it were not so deeply personal. Maybe you are a bit like me, wanting to keep up appearances as a “godly” person when in our hearts lays the ungodly monster of a judgmental spirit, holding grudges and not loving others as Christ has loved us.

This morning in my time with the Lord I was wrestling over a relationship that has been a hurtful disappointment. Then the Spirit of God opened my eyes to see the condition of my own heart. I had been judging this person for years, accepting them conditionally and loving them poorly. The sin was given room to grow because I had my reasons for feeling this way. But this morning the Light of the World shined very brightly and kindly to show me my sin and granted grace to repent.

Sin will never take me down the road I want to be on, the road to continued Christ-likeness. Sin takes me to dead places. It deadens my sensitivity to the Lord; it leads me to accepting unforgiveness and bitterness as ok when, in fact, they’re killing me.

I found myself in Romans 8, in The Message paraphrase. The word of God brought direction and comfort. Direction, by bringing me back to a fresh filling of the Spirit, and comfort, that he will gently love this friend through me. Nothing all that profound, to be sure, but very freeing.

So, where are your wounds? Would you ask the Lord to show you the roads taking you in a direction you ultimately do not want to go? List the places these false paths are leading you. Consider what God would have you do with these fresh insights.

- Barbara Francis

Speaker and Author
Barbara Francis
Bringing God’s message of life and hope

Why read another book on forgiveness?

This is not a dry and boring approach to a time-worn topic. The reader will be pleasantly surprised by the contemporary, conversational style of Grace & Guts and by the honest manner in which the author contends with the issues surrounding forgiveness.

The book uniquely unpacks the two sides of forgiveness-embracing it and extending it-through real-life narratives, creative paraphrases of biblical stories dealing with forgiveness, and a spot-on use of principles from the word of God.

Grace & Guts helps us delve into the dark places of unforgiveness that reside within all of us and then points a hopeful finger toward the way out.

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