What do you do when you feel used?

The other night I had this picture where I had given a friend my beautiful guitar (which recently I have in the natural) and they took it and then you go to see them and they wont come out and see you but they give you the old worn out dusty guitar case back but through their daughter?

To me this was a picture that I had given my best to someone and they turned around and gave me the rubbish back and not through them but through someone else. This has happened many times to me where I have given my heart and then I hear through someone else something from that person but that person never talks to me.

What do we do with this when it happens to you? Where you feel used, where you have given everything and then got nothing in return or if you have it has been rubbish?

It is a very painful process and too often when that happens we shut ourselves up and protect our heart in the future so we don't get used or hurt again. This is our natural response to this sort of pain but that is not the love in which we see Jesus displaying.

To me Jesus is the ultimate example for us to follow. For me He is the one who understands this sort of pain and rejection. And He is the one to whom I look as to see what I do. The word says to protect your heart for it is the wellspring of Life but so many of us I believe see this in a way that is actually not the way I believe Jesus is wanting us to protect our hearts.

Jesus entrusted himself with the one who is just - the Father. He entrusted his heart to the Father. The pain he experienced through rejection, through misunderstanding did not stop him from continuing to love and continuing to give to those around him, even when he knew their heart toward him, even when he knew they would betray him, he still gave willingly no matter what it cost him. That is the call for us as Christians to keep giving, to keep loving, to keep sacrificing even at the cost entrusting your heart with Him who truly knows your pain and trusting him to heal your heart. To keep our heart soft towards everyone around us. And we cannot do that without surrendering our pain to Him who knows our heart. The rejection we suffer is not actually ours to hold onto, it is Jesus' as we are no longer our own and so we need to give him all the rejection, all the pain and not hold onto it just as we need to give him all the glory when things are going well. It is not us people are rejecting, it is Jesus in us.

So I want to encourage you when people hurt you, when they use you, when you feel misunderstood please take it to Jesus and give it all to him so He can come in and heal you and so your hurt can be turned into amazing grace without bounds which we have all received. Jesus said at the cross, Father forgive them for they do not know what they do. We too didn't know what we have done to Jesus and continue to do on a daily basis and yet He forgives us and still gives to us and we don't even see it. This past weekend Jesus opened my eyes to yet another revelation of where I had been judging someone and in so judging did not see them as Jesus sees them and so I condemn them without even realising it and when that happens and your eyes are opened you remember once again the grace you have been given towards yourself that it enables you to give grace to those around who perhaps you don't feel deserve it.

Obedience and Commitment are big things in Gods Kingdom

Reading in Acts 7 this morning the story through Stephen of Abraham being told by God to " Leave your country and your people and go the the land I will show you" So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." As I reflected on this and the journey of Abraham stepping out in faith into a land that he received no inheritance in but a promise of what was to come for his descendants of which we live in the fruit of that, I thought of todays generations in which often is only doing things that we want to do or that will benefit us personally as we live for 'today' not worrying about tomorrow. A sense of if it feels good then do it, if it doesn't then we will move on - perhap

6 legged sheep???

In the weekend I saw a vision of a sheep that had six legs. And what I believe the Lord is saying, there are many sheep, (followers of Christ), but they are trusting in their own strength and not in mine. When we trust in our own strength and abilities we forfeit the grace that can be ours, the enabling that comes from stepping out in faith in the impossible, the testimonies that give God the glory rather than the expectation of what should be because we have put our hand to something. God is the God of the impossible and in order for the miracles, the testimonies, we need to be a people that step out in what we can't do and allow God to come in and do the impossible. That may simply be asking the Lord to help you to forgive someone that has hurt you so much, to getting on a plane with no finances because the Lord has asked you to, to continue to stay in a job/church/marriage/relationship you don't want to because that is where God has placed you, to praying for a

The baby's been handed over

Several weeks ago the Lord shifted us out of the 'home office' into the 'market place' and in the process a spiritual shift happened - one of letting the 'baby' go, a releasing and handing over the batten, so to speak to others. In this process the nests that WE ALL have been in have been stirred up, shaken about, and pushed out, to fly in ways that perhaps we were too afraid to do previously. The amazing thing with God is that He knows the timing of all of this and where each one of us is at and what we can handle. Yes there has been a fluttering of wings in panic. Yes, we have had a few weeks of challenge as authority and structures get changed and challenged, frustrations coming to the fore, but love helps us overcome, love helps us to forgive, love helps us to see the good and not the dirt, love helps us remember our own failings and yet forgiveness and grace that the Lord has for me, that I can give to others, remembering it's the glory of G

Don't worry, you wont miss the bus.

Last night I had this dream and there were a bunch of people at my house and we all decided to go somewhere by bus. Because we had to lock up the house, Jim and I missed the bus, while the others managed to make it. I found myself getting a little frustrated with Jim as he seemed to be so slow in locking everything up. Jim & I got there just in time to see their bus drive away. We were left standing in the rain. But then the thinking came, its alright, we will just catch the next bus. Some of us may feel at times like we have missed our opportunity. That we have missed what The Lord would have us do, and in that we can get a little frustrated by people around us and even perhaps blame people for where things are at, at least I know I do at times. :) But I believe The Lord wants to encourage people today, including myself, that you don't need to worry, just rest and be at peace and you will soon get another opportunity. Like waiting for a bus at a bus stop, they come

Do you feel like you are being tossed around in the wind?

I believe there are some out there who feel like they are being tossed about from one thing to the other, not sure where they are heading or what they are believing for and this is a time when you just want to give up and walk away from the promises God has put inside of you. I want to encourage you to keep going and as it says in James 1:2 " Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." I know that sometimes you don't consider it all joy when you go through trials but believe me, it develops things in you that you will be grateful for if you don't give up and you will see fruit in your life and those around you should you learn to walk in patience and perseverance. These are times you don't want to be a lone sheep but instead get yourself around people of faith wh

Do you feel alone or discouraged today?

I was greatly encouraged this morning as I read 2 Timothy chapter 4. This chapter outlines some of Paul’s struggles and how people loved the world and followed their ways and in so doing caused much harm towards Paul and his ministry, but his hope remained in the Lord and His reward comes from Christ alone. Verse 10 “Demas has forsaken me” Verse 14 “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm” People can come and go out of your life. People can cause trouble, but we are called as Christians to endure hardship as it says in 2 Timothy 2:3 “Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a solider”. 2:10 “Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.’ We go through many things in life, many challenges and it is easy to look to man, to get discouraged b

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