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.

"A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" Matt 10:36

Recently we have been pondering how to deal with situations in our family that don't line up with the word. What action do we need to take? Are we being too harsh? Do we accept the behaviour or be considered by those around us as "too radical" or "too black and white"? "Where is grace in all of this? How do we love the sinner but hate the sin? What about forgiveness? What is the role of discipline? What makes that sin any worse than lying? What is true love? And there are a lot more questions going through the mind in how to work through this and know God's will and desire for the situation and the person. And firstly to say we have not come to any conclusions and are growing and learning day by day in this but I want to throw it out there. In Matt 10:34-39 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "a man against his father, ...

Ponderings today 16 Dec

Whilst we may not agree with everything that is preached from the pulpit, there is always something that we can learn either about the Lord or about ourselves and our responses to it. Lets not be a people to whom are easily offended and move on without learning what it is that the Lord would have us learn in the different situations. I read a wonderful scripture this morning that really encouraged me as one who often feels arrows in the back in the spirit from peoples jud gements towards me, which God really spoke to me about and hope that it would encourage you too if you feel this way. As it is not us who receive the arrows from people but the Lord (v4) But also reminds me not to be a person that speaks about others behind their back as words are powerful and the tongue either brings life or death. And it is so easily done without often thinking about it. And as easily as I feel arrows, others would feel arrows from me. Lord forgive us our sin as we forgive others theirs. ...

Is the church a cafe? Did you go to be served or to serve?

I had a dream this morning where I saw that I was working in a cafe. It was busy, there were people coming and going and we didn’t have everything we needed, we still needed a barista, some customers were helping cook the steak for the hamburgers that Jim was cooking as Jim was rushed off his feet. We needed people to serve the people coming in as I was dealing with all the different ones coming and going. I saw that people were sitting down in a seat but actually weren’t there to get food, they were just using the seats even though they were not using the cafe. I saw a council officer come in to inspect things and she saw we still needed a barista and she knew people and was going to help us to find one. There was an older man there who was smoking a cigar and I was keen to have a drag off his cigar. People were wandering through our private home at the back of the cafe. The cafe remained open because people kept coming. But I was shown that if I did...

There is an army rising up!

Are you struggling in your family? Are you struggling with people in the body of Christ? Keep going in love and you will see the breakthroughs you long for. Over the past few months the Lord has been showing me some scenes where the enemy has been trying to attack and destroy families, and so I believe it is a time where we need to be alert of the devils schemes and counter attack with the truth and the love of God. Three areas we ourselves as a ministry are currently contenting for breakthrough in are: 1. the unity of the body of Christ, 2. for whole families to come to Christ 3. for mental health issues to be overcome .... and so of course the enemy wants to come and try and destroy in whatever way He can within churches, within families, in individuals and so I/we need to be alert to the schemes of the enemy. Romans 12:21 "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." One vision I share with you I ha...

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...

Make way for the new development

This morning I had a dream and in this dream I saw Jim & I were helping clear out the rubble and things left in houses that were being demolished. Whole rows of houses were being demolished and we were asked to come and help clear the area before new things went in. But while helping shift stuff (although a bit reluctantly as I am not a fan of hard physical work) we were blessed to be able to take the pickings of what was left and I found myself picking up the antique ornaments., the treasures. There was also a big white fridge that actually was a safe that couldn’t be opened or moved, it was stuck, solid, so wedged in nothing was going to move it. I realise in processing this, this is actually the call the Lord has on Jim & I, we are called to shift stuff in the spirit, in peoples lives in order for the new to come in and in seeing the big fridge which was actually a safe, it made me think of Matt 6. The fridge often re...

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