Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Friday 08/26/2011)

What Are You Holding On To, That God Is Trying To Get Rid Of…

John 13:5-9 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁵Then He poured water into the washbasin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the [servant's] towel with which He was girded. ⁶When He came to Simon Peter, [Peter] said to Him, Lord, are my feet to be washed by You? [Is it for You to wash my feet?] ⁷Jesus said to him, You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later on. ⁸Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet! Jesus answered him, Unless I wash you, you have no part with (in) Me [you have no share in companionship with Me]. ⁹Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, [wash] not only my feet, but my hands and my head too!

            One of the hardest things for me is when I need help to ask for it.  It has nothing to do with pride and everything to do with experiences.  I have learned through experiences in my life when I have relied upon people they have all too often let me down. In some cases taken great pleasure in attempting to bring me down and destroy me or pieces of who God designed me to be.  So I have learned to be resourceful, take care of it myself, or suck it up, hurt and do without it.  Now I am not saying I am right, nor am I advocating this stance, because not all people are the same, I have come to know that.  Over the last four months, I have been in school, God has had me in change your thinking 101.  He has been teaching me about reliance, and trusting Him and allowing people access to different parts of my life that I deemed off limits.  He is retraining my thinking and my posture because He sent someone into my life that helps me trust and encourages me to lean on and need him.  I am finding this is an area that God had to send someone that literally had to pry my fingers open and talk and pray me through letting go of being in a posture that I don’t need anyone I can do it myself.  I know people now, that when people do not function in their lives as they “think” they should or in a little box that they have checked in the friend or relationship category they walk away from friendships, and relationships, detaching them, as if they were a bra that no longer suited their taste. 

These attitudes and mindsets are things that God is trying to get us to discard, but for many of us it is going to take God telling us, if we don’t change our thinking that has led to specific attitude and behaviors that we have no part of Him.  Many of us lack the understanding that God is trying to clean us up, He is trying to get us closer to Him and thinking more like Him, but instead we are so busy holding on to past hurts, words that people have whispered in our ears that validate our pain, instead of going to God and praying that God gives us peace, understanding, and that His great and abounding love abide over us and in us.  Many of us, just like me, have held on to things in the name of protecting ourselves and taking care of ourselves.  Our society places so much emphasis on being independent, but when God established mankind, he wanted us to rely upon one another, to love in a way that generated reliance to some degree. But many times it is our thinking that gets in the way; it is our attitude that holds us back from healthy relationships and changing or abiding in the place God wants us to, with people.  For some others it is the company we keep and who we are listening to that inspires us to be out of God’s will.  We allow people that are unqualified because they are speaking out of their own pain and insecurity to speak into our situation.  They get us drinking the Kool-Aid, and buying into the hype of drama and confusion that really isn’t drama and confusion.  Then one day they get upset because we don’t check their friendship relationship box, or follow the rules that they “think” are appropriate and then we are out there, because we pushed others away based on their validation of our situations, and then the one thing that we tried to protect ourselves from we are abiding in, rejection, loneliness, pain misuse and discomfort.

I love the song in the movie the Color Purple, “God Is Trying To Tell You Something.”  And it is true that He is trying to tell you something RIGHT NOW, that will have great impact on your life and the way you live it, but it is always our choice to hear Him and act upon it, or stay in the same mindset and posture we have been in.  But just like Peter when Jesus went to wash His feet, if He had stayed of the mentality that Jesus should not wash His feet, He would have missed being a part of God’s plan, and the greater works that God had planned for Him.  The one thing that God reminds me of periodically is that we cannot serve two Masters, one we will love and the other we will hate.  One we will serve in diligence and the other we will neglect to serve. We cannot say that we love God with our mouths and cry out to Him when we are in trouble and live according to our flesh, our own mindsets, our friends’ words and expect Him to answer and expect that we will still reap the blessings and favor of God upon our lives.  We need to Let Go of the noise and chatter of idle words spoken to inspire mess and mindsets that are negative and destructive and Let God change us from the inside out; in order that our hearts and lives are truly changed for the better, not a temporary fix, nor a temporary solution to what may feel good or look like a great solution to us, but one that follows what God requires of us and who He is encouraging us to be!  Stop holding on to things that are holding you back from the will of God, it will only help you to grow from love and progress into the man or woman that God intends!  Love covers a multitude of sin…Psalms 119:165 says, “Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble.”  If we are stumbling, falling offended and hurt, chances are we are not loving God’s word and living in His will! I’m just saying!