Today, we’re continuing to move toward reconciliation with this series based on Neil T. Anderson’s wonderful book, Restoring Broken Relationships: The Path to Peace and Forgiveness.
Here are two steps for casting down the obstacles to reconciliation:
- Depending entirely on God.
Like the disciples in the middle of the storm, we can row alone against the storm that is our life. Our Father won’t stop us. But there comes a time when managing our family through our own strength, fighting our way toward something that God promised us but is slow in coming, or carrying loved ones’ conflicts without daring to ask for help drains us. We row until our arms are exhausted. Or...we call upon God, and His help and provision come. Our self-sufficiency is reconciliation’s worst enemy.
- Knowing how to forgive.
Conflicts hurt and can leave emotional, even spiritual, scarring. Sometimes, our first reaction is to cling to our anger like a shield so we don’t get hurt even more. But God, who is full of love, encourages us to let go. He is just, and He knows how to take care of us like no one else!
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was us.
Pray with me: “ ... forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (the Bible, Matthew 6:12)
My desire for you today, is that you completely give God the control, no matter how much pain you are enduring. He is there to set you free of everything preventing you from living fully!
Perhaps this prayer is appropriate for the occasion:“Lord, thank You for Your grace and Your love. Thank You for Your teaching that never condemns but always is for my benefit. Teach me to depend entirely on You, to forgive like You ask me to. I want to do Your will day by day. Remove everything that’s preventing me from living the life of reconciliation that You want for me! In Jesus’s name, amen.”
Thanks for existing!
