Daily Devotional: Monday, Dec 7
Speaker: Ben Sigman
Theme: Healing Family Rifts
Weekend Music links on iTunes: The Time Has Come by Hillsong United ; Angels We Have Heard on High arranged by Chris Tomlin; Cannons by Phil Wickham; From the Inside Out by Hillsong United.
Read: Genesis 4:1 - 8; Isaiah 61:1
Think: In Pastor Ben's series on Christmas is Forgiving, he said that "unforgiveness can take away your life." And it's true... Unforgiveness attacks our souls. In our mind we rehearse the hurt, in our will we consciously choose to hold onto the hurt and in our emotions we're sad, disappointed, depressed and angry. Our enemy would love to keep us in that place.
In Genesis 4:5 the story of Cain and Abel says, "So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast." God asks, "Why?" and in verse 7 "...if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
Over time it takes so much energy to maintain and foster unforgiveness. When my ex-wife had an affair with a man in our church I hated her, him, my church leadership, God, and my life. As we went our separate ways I worked hard to stay busy but I constantly re-lived conversations, situations I could have made different and all the things God could have done to keep me out of this pain.
Ben told us to "Let God work a miracle in your life". In my most desperate pain I reached out my hand and called on God to help me - and He set me free! Forgiveness for my whole list of people flooded into my soul and I discovered as Lewis Smedes says in his book The Art of Forgiving "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you."
Do: The next time you start rehearsing some conversation or hurtful situation associated with a person in your past, pray!
Pray: Lord you are the author of forgiveness. I am struggling to forgive. Father, please work a miracle in my life and author the forgiveness I so desperately need to set myself free from this prison. Amen.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church. |
