Torturous Forgiveness

Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

Matthew 18:21-35 NLT

This is a story that completely encompasses the TORTURE of forgiveness. 

If you're like me you have struggled at least once with forgiveness. I had never really had any friends. The friends I did have I categorized as "friendlies", we were more than acquaintances but not really friends. Then I had met someone who became a great friend! Stuff happened and I felt betrayed. I knew I had to forgive this person, but I couldn't! How dare they betray me like this?! To this day I still struggle with forgiving this person.

If you look closely in verse 34, after the king found out about the servant sending the other guy to prison, he sent him to be TORTURED until he had paid his debt. The catch here is really in verse 35 when Jesus tells us that that's what God will do to us, TORTURE, if we don't forgive others.

If you have ever struggled with forgiving someone then you know that in the process of holding that grudge you become bitter and angry. You start to hate. It feels like that person is torturing you!! 

This scripture proves that this is how God set it up. Why would he do that?!

Take a  moment right here. Stop. Close your eyes. Think. Think about all of the bad things or not great things you have done. Think about the mistakes you have made. Think about the times where you've done anything that did not bring glory to God. Every time you've fibbed or bent the truth. Every time you took even a penny that didn't belong to you. Every time you've laughed at a joke that made fun of a person. Every time you've done anything less than perfect. 

That's a lot, right?

Well God not only forgave you, he had EVERYTHING you've ever done, not done or thought about put on His son. When his son, Jesus, carried all of that God turned his back on him, because God hates sin and cannot look at it! ~If you are a parent think about how hard it would be for you to turn your back on your child... There was a woman on the news this morning who was in trouble with the law for harboring a fugitive, her son...~ Then Jesus died because of your sin & mine. Ultimately Jesus defeated death, hell and the grave. He is alive and in heaven with God again.

It's because God put his son in our place that we are free to be forgiven. Make sure you're catching that God didn't just forgive us, he gave EVERYTHING so that we can be forgiven.

So if he is willing to go through all of that and forgive us, why shouldn't we forgive someone else - no matter what they did. No one could ever hurt us the way we have hurt our God and yet we are forgiven every time we ask.

So don't let yourself be tortured. Jesus already went through it for you. Forgive that person. Every day forgive them until you aren't upset anymore.

~Awaken Us~

Brenna Stanford

Forget the "Act Right"

Matthew 9: 9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth. "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

Forget the "Act Right"!

So many people, Christians or not, have trouble understanding this. I recently had a conversation with someone who has been raised in church their whole life. They informed me that for the next 60 days they were going to try what they called "clean living" to see if anything changed. I asked them if they were just going to try to act right or if they were going to try a relationship with Jesus.

They were baffled, there was a difference, a separation? I went on to share this scripture and told them that if they just try to act right then they will end up bitter and resentful and it probably won't work. You see they wanted to set these super high goals that restricted the of things that they enjoy to see if that made them happier. That's a set up for failure.

Instead they need to be trying to build a relationship with Jesus, take their 60 days and talk to, listen to and let Jesus love them without worrying about what they are or are not doing. Or what Jesus might tell them they can or can't do. In the scripture (the Bible - our way of getting to know God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit) Jesus tells Matthew - a tax collector, who in biblical times meant a crook! - to follow him. That was it!! Jesus didn't tell Matthew  he had to quit robing people or that he had to sell everything and pay back all the people he took from. No, he simply said follow me, in other words be my friend.

When we form a friendship with Jesus we are getting to know him, through that we fall in love with him. Because of our loving Jesus and wanting to please him changes in our life do occur. That's why scripture says that we are known by our fruit - our actions. But NO WHERE in scripture does it say that we must act right to follow Jesus. Verse 11 -13 goes on to tell how the religious people were ticked off because Jesus was with people who didn't act right. Then Jesus responded to them by saying that he wasn't here for the people who think that they act right, but for the ones who now they don't.

So today & everyday after, FORGET THE ACT RIGHT!!! Just love Jesus!!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford

Get to Know Jesus

Recently I had a conversation with someone about Jesus. In this conversation they had mentioned that they don't know anything about it. The only answer I could give this person was that it's just like getting to know a best friend. You guys talk to each other and spend time with each other.

Today if you feel like this person, you don't know anything about God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, then be encouraged. It is just like getting to know a best friend. He's waiting on you! 

~Awaken Us~

Brenna Stanford

Child Arguments

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

1 Corinthians 13:11 

Have you ever had an argument with a little child? You are both so insistent because that child really believes that the sky is green and you know that the sky is blue! So there you are, standing there going back and forth with a 3 year old about wether or not the sky is blue or green.

If you've ever felt Satan come against you it can feel like you're arguing with a child. I woke up the other morning to a heartbreaking text. Immediately I felt myself go into this "pleading the blood of Jesus", "rebuking Satan in the name of Jesus" argument.

I was quickly reminded that doing that was neither necessary or helpful. We are told in Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. You see Jesus has already came and one the war. He spoke on the cross that it is finished. All we have to do is stand firm in confidence that Jesus has already won the war, this battle is already finished. We need only to be still. 

Just as arguing with a little child is useless and time consuming, so is arguing with Satan and trying to defeat him. We are too busy trying to take care of more important things. We do not need to waste our time arguing with Satan. We know the sky is blue, the war is won, we don't need to try to convince him of it. He already knows. If he can keep you tied up arguing with him, then you might miss an opportunity to help someone else.

Today, no matter the argument, hush up, get on with your day in confidence knowing it's already taken care of. Pray continuously. That is done in your spirit always. Be confident.

Hebrews 11:1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

~Awaken Us~

Brenna Stanford

Your DNA

Some of you may be familiar with the mid 90s movie titled The Nutty Professor. If you're not it's basically about a man who is obese and geta tired of dealing with the struggles. So, because he's a professor, he creates this syrum that makes him skinny. Sounds pretty smart right? There's a few things he didn't account for...

As the story goes he hooks himself up to his lab equipment and drinks the syrum. He goes through the dramatic process. At the end his monitor flashes the words DNA Reconstruction Complete.

Now he begins going through his life as Buddy Love. All the while dealing with the fact that his true self always comes out. It's a constant battle.

Often times we feel unworthy and useless as our true selves. We're not popular or thin. We don't have the gorgeous, voluptuous, and silky hair. We aren't built the way everyone else is. So we start to try to change who we are because we want others to like us or we want to be like everyone else. We create our own form of Buddy Love.

What we don't realize is that we're trying to change our DNA. When scripture says that God created us with a plan and a purpose for our lives. (Jeremiah 29:11) God created us as a masterpiece!! He loves us and created us in His image!! So when we try to change who we are, we're telling God he didn't do a good enough job and that He's a liar.

Catch what I'm saying here. I'm talking about changing WHO we ARE not WHAT we DO, there's a difference. We do things and make choices that are mistakes all the time. We can change our actions from minute to minute. When we change WHO we are in order to appease anyone other than God we end up with a Buddy Love.

Buddy Love is extreme! He's loud, annoying, and everything but Professor Klump! In the movie he's trying to win over a girl, what he finds out is that the girl loves him as he is! The other people he impresses along the way are phoney and only want to get what they can out of Buddy. The people in his life who love him, and really love him, love him for who he is!

So if you're struggling with loving yourself the way you are, remember that your DNA doesn't need to be reconstructed! God made you who you are for a reason!! He loves you endlessly!!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford

God's Promises for Me Thousands of Years Ago!

Leviticus 26:3-13 NIV

“ ‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.   “ ‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.   “ ‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high."

This is the end of Leviticus. If you've ever read this book you know that it is a book of the Laws. This is after God has brought the people out of their slavery in Egypt and is having to give them laws to govern them. He does this through Moses. These are the laws that, in the new testament, the Pharisees and Jews refer to as the Law of Moses or the Laws of Our Ancestors.

I had a discussion with a wise Pastor yesterday because there have been things that I wonder why it is in the Bible. Why is this necessary for me to know? There are things like the sacrifices they used to have to make, I know it is important for me to understand what had to be done so I can understand what Jesus meant as a sacrifice for me. I can look at how detailed God's instructions to them are and understand that even then God wanted hearts that were willing to do anything and that revered him enough to know he's worth even the tiniest detail. But why do I need to know that they weren't allowed to wear garments made of two different kinds of hair?

The conclusion we came to was that we need to read and understand the strict law that was once there, and without Jesus would still be here today, so we can understand and appreciate the freedom Jesus brings to us! Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law for us. So in Him we are able to be worthy of God!

So when I read the scripture quoted in the beginning of this blog, I read it knowing that with my Faith in Jesus Christ and my attempt everyday to live according to His word and walk next to Him through this life accepting His grace that I am able to receive those promises from God!

Today I want you to read that and read it in context to your life!

“If I (name) follow God's decrees and am careful to obey His commands, He will send me rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. My work will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and I will eat all the food I want and live in safety in my land(I will have plenty and God will provide everything necessary to live and live safely in my home, at my job). God will grant peace in the land(in my home and at work), and I will lie down and no one will make me afraid. God will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through my country(there will be no one or nothing to terrorize my home or my family or my job). I will pursue my enemies, and they will fall by the sword before me (I have the victory in all of my battles). Five of us will chase a hundred, and a hundred of us will chase ten thousand, and our enemies will fall by the sword before us.  God will look on me with favor and make me fruitful and increase my numbers, and He will keep His covenant with me. I will still be eating last year’s harvest when I will have to move it out to make room for the new (His favor will increase everything I need to the point where I will have MORE THAN ENOUGH). God will put His dwelling place among me, and He will not abhor me. God will walk among us and be our God, and we will be His people. God is the Lord our God, who brought us out of Egypt (our bondage and addiction) so that we would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; He broke the bars of our yoke and enabled us to walk with heads held high."

BELIEVE it!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford

Just One of Those Days

Do you ever have just one of those days? I do. Sometimes more often than not...

I want to share with you a couple of things to help turn one of those days into a great day! (Yes, it is possible!! lol)

The first thing you have to do is find a time where you can have a moment and just breathe. For me it's driving to work - I've already left so I'm not having to make sure I remember everything, my son is in the car jibber-jabbering so I'm not having to get him ready, and so on.

One thing I try to do daily, even though sometimes I forget, is to take a big, deep breath in and tell God that I'm breathing in more of him today. As I release my breath slowly I breathe out myself. Reasons: 1. Taking big, deep breaths is calming
2. John 3:30 says "He must become greater; I must become less.”

Then, I smile -even if it hurts.

Then I think about Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. - and I list the truth that is excellent and praiseworthy.
1. I am a child of God!
2. God loves me!
3. Jesus set me free!
4. I am a masterpiece!
5. God has a purpose for me to accomplish THIS day!

So today, if you're having one of those days breathe in God and breathe out you, smile, think on things that are truth and excellent and praiseworthy!!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford