Have you felt betrayed, left behind, forgotten and neglected?

Sometimes we have. Or did the person we love make a choice when they weren’t thinking clearly? Did they forget to stop and think of us or not know we cared?

Whatever the reason, our feelings take over our brains, and we entertain all kinds of ways to retaliate. As followers of Christ, we know we are to forgive. And we do. Yet, those feelings still linger, stewing in our minds and hearts. Like homemade soup, the longer it sits on the burner unattended, the hotter the soup gets until it is boiling out of control. But the uncontrolled boil does not make our hearts and souls warmer. When we turn our hearts and minds inward, they become increasingly harder and colder. And then the insidious lies trickle in.

“I don’t need them, anyway!”

“I can manage fine on my own.”

“They don’t really care about me!”

“God doesn’t care about me.”

We argue with ourselves that these things aren’t true, but they FEEL true.

We are in a battle.

Where do we take these feelings?

What do we do with them?

It may seem picky, but we need to be on our guard. Where is our armour weak? The Enemy is always looking for a chink, a weakness, however small, to pierce with his arrow. The battle is ongoing because the Enemy is like a roaring lion, roaming around looking for opportunities to destroy us and steal glory from the Lord. Any opportunity we give him. Like the serpent he is, he looks for any crack to slither his lies in, so he can deceive us, cause us to falter and make us feel like God is not for us.

When we take these feelings to the Lord and allow Him to examine them with us, the Lord can change our hearts, thoughts AND feelings.

Are we prideful? Envious of the attention and focus? Are we afraid of losing our place on the throne?

It feels good to think about retaliating, doesn’t it? Then they’ll know who is in charge. Then they’ll know where the glory and attention belong. With each thought, we feel ourselves moving closer and closer to the throne where we belong.

However, when we turn these feelings over to the Lord and dissect them in the light of God’s mercy and grace, we realize we have no ground to stand on. We don’t belong on the throne, and we know it.

The Lord forgave fully, humbled Himself fully, and chose not to retaliate, all for the glory of God the Father. He is our example.

In return, we get a renewed relationship with God and with whoever we feel betrayed by. It brings new life to our souls. A load gets lifted off us and the sweet warmth of joy infuses us in place of icy bitterness, anger, and misery.

The next time we feel wronged, let us take those feelings of hurt and retaliation to our loving Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to shine the light of truth and mercy upon them. Then there will be no chinks in our armour, and we can stand firm and keep fighting for the glory of God, and love as Jesus loved.

Be well!

Patricia