Today’s Prayer
Dear God, Calm my spirit today. Please forgive me of gossip or worry about the people and circumstances that surround me. Please replace anger with peace. Please help me to keep my focus on Jesus, author and finisher of my faith. Please help me to focus on what I need to accomplish today, and what You want me to do. Put away all wrong thoughts and keep me from wrong actions. I want to be a steady, stable, godly person who is a pleasure to be around and a loving witness of your mercy and glory. May I be an instrument that produces a sweet, soothing sound, uplifting spirits and pleasing the Master Conductor, My Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
“If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God” (Ps. 55:12-14).
I never thought that people would intentionally cause harm to other people. Believe it or not, I always believed that given the opportunity, people would surprise you and be kind. At my age I have found that isn’t the case. Some people hurt and that pain gets lodged in the discontent of their heart. In turn that feeds on the seven deadliest sins.
What happens is people turn inward. They became irrational in their self-pity, their unwillingness to compromise, and they feel as though the world has somehow done them a terrible injustice. If we were all honest we have been these people from time to time. Life can never be free of the whispers that cloud our judgments.
However, when we take ownership of the sins we made, and the people those actions hurt, we begin to understand that like us, the ones who have offended us need forgiveness too. If we are not without sin, how can we hold another human being born of sin to withstand their own?
Forgiveness is often given when resolution happens, but what happens when there is no closure? That’s the hardest emotion to wrestle with. We’ve been betrayed. Usually by someone we trusted, and now they hold this sadness, and this undeniable disappointment that we carry.
The only way to free yourself from the bonds of all that is un-Holy from your being and begin to see the joy again is to forgive. To let go and take the power of your emotions back under your control. Choose not to give one moment of time in thought to that which you cannot change. Choose you today. Choose your happiness. I pray that you can.
Reba Nietert 