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.
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.