Day 14 – The 40-Day Heart Revolution
While I was reading this chapter, I kept going back to a relationship in my life that is broken. I have a person in my life who broke relationship with me years ago, but I still don’t know why. “So how did you handle it, Pastor Jeff?” I’ll tell you.
I called that person up. I told them that I know I had offended them, and I would rather have a healthy relationship with them than anythingelse in the world. And I said I am genuinely sorry I did them wrong, and I would never have done something like that on purpose, no matter what it was, because I love that person more than anything that could be said or done.
And I was told that they couldn’t deal with that right now, but have a nice day. Have a nice day!
Then I saw that person at a family member’s funeral. Personal hate just oozed from them, and remarks in front of my own family that had people’s eyes doubling in size.
Sigh.
Fast forward to a guest speaker we had at a church event who knows that person and knows us, but didn’t know we knew each other. When he made the connection, he knew about the disconnect! How about that? I’m getting talked around to people I’ve never even met!
So what did I do? I reached out to that person and asked for forgiveness again. This time I asked if they could tell me what it was that I said or did that was offensive to them, because I never want to do that again. Nope. I got told off. Period.
Now, why would I air out a broken relationship out where everybody in the world can see? Because I want to encourage everybody in the world that it’s not your responsibility to MAKE someone respond or change. It is your responsibility to MAKE yourself change.
Be brave! Be mature! Be strong! Go ahead and ask for forgiveness even when it’s a phantom thing you will never understand.
One more example. I worked with a guy who held a grudge against me from our 2nd month together until he quit over a year later. When he left I did what I would do often; I asked him what in the world I ever did to tick him off. I told him that there’s just nothing I could have done to make him hate me like this, and as a Christian, I wanted to make things right before he left. He just sneered at me and turned his back on me. This time I threw in, “Look, you’re leaving and you’ve been a jerk to me for a year. Don’t be a coward and take this with you. Tell me what I did!”
He was just cocky enough to take my dare. He told me that he had been told I lied about a car he was selling from another worker he trusted. He was going to sell it to that guy, and while they were negotiating the buyer told him, “Jeff’s a Christian and he wouldn’t lie. He said you told him that it pulls to the right.” So he used that as a negotiating tool to drive down an extra $1,000, and the seller was embarrassed in front of his wife because he didn’t get all the money they expected.
“So I had no use for you ever since. I never told you anything about the car,” he said.
I told him that not only did he never tell me anything about the car, but I didn’t even know he had an extra car to sell, and this was the first time I ever heard about it.
He stood there staring at me. He took a deep breath in. Then he told me if I didn’t say anything, the other guy must have made it up just to get the price down. So I asked him how that was my fault! He laughed at me! Laughed at me!
About a month later, he had called someone who called someone who knew my cell number. He called me, told me he felt bad that he never made it right with me. He told me that he had just accepted Jesus into his heart, and the first person he thought of was me. He said he felt like God told him in his heart to get hold of me and apologize for everything.
Two stories about asking for forgiveness. One resulted in nothing. One resulted in restoration. Take a chance. Your request for forgiveness even when you’ve done nothing wrong may be that little edge that pushes someone else into the Light and they can walk with Christ!
Part 4 of The 40-Day Heart Challenge
In a couple days, Wednesday night, we’re going to go through the sermon notes and listen to the sermon audio of Pastor Sergio De La Mora’s, “The F-Bomb.”
With forgiveness, we empty the absolute sewage out of our backpacks. We stop carrying around someone else’s offence.
With forgiveness, we clean off our beacon for God’s forgiveness to find us and wash us clean. The sludge that had been splashing out of our backpack up onto that light gets cleared away and the light of the Father washes over us like a day at the beach.
With forgiveness, we break off the extra handle that somebody else could grab and pull us away with. It’s a stronghold we have to crack off of ourselves, and give God the chance to heal that break. While He’s tenderly caring for that wound, He is close enough to whisper in your ear, “I’m so proud of you for loving me enough to forgive that person.”
With forgiveness, we open a door that would otherwise stay shut all our lives. That door leads to healthy relationships we would miss with thoughts like, “Oh that’s just like *that other person did to me*, so this new person must be just like that old problem person.”
No it’s not. Different person. Different circumstance. How do I know? Because I have every confidence that it’s a different YOU!
Forgive. God will forgive you. And I promise, from time to time He will toss you a prize because He’s so proud of you and can trust you to use it with clean hands and a pure heart.
Day 12 – The 40-Day Heart Challenge
A couple days ago I said that some verses say things clearly enough that I don’t have to add anything. This one has held so many places in my life that I’ll give it some personal perspective, okay?
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the dfoor will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
I’ve asked plenty and not received, so depending on my place in life I’ve been at peace and troubled by the same exact event. Troubled because trust is free to me but expensive to give — you know it is. And yes, when I was a child I had childish desires, and now that I’m grown my appetites yearn for higher things. But when is it enough to actually GET? Never. And Always. It’s all about trusting that the Giver of all Good things knows how best to move His perfect plan for my life forward.
Knock and it will be opened? I’ve knocked so many times I feel like my knuckles are 3-times bigger just from the build up of callouses. But God doesn’t want me just to have tough knuckles to knock and not have it opened. From time to time, while I’m knocking, the enemy comes and picks a fight. (You’re getting the analogy here, right?) Resisting the devil sometimes means I’m going to blows to protect my rights that God has given me! In a way I’ve got to fight with the devil! Did you catch that? And my fists don’t get all bruised from his horny face because they were built up knocking and knocking!
Seek. Find. What did you think? You would discover the deep things of God without any effort on your part? Nope. I’m delighted when He throws me a freebie sometimes, but it’s never been when I’m sitting around. He gives me “A” when I’m diligently seeking “B” sometimes. At lease they’re both part of His will, and I was walking in obedience.
And then, then, then….He says, “Come up to a higher level! The door is open! Take a deep breath and move forward!”
Bigger. Better. Higher. More.
The 40-Day Heart Challenge – Chapter 11
There are some really awful stories out there. Maybe you have one of them to tell. Do you know one of the worst stories I have ever heard? It’s the story about how to boil frogs.
Toss a frog in boiling water, and it’ll jump right out. Toss a frog in cool water and it swims around while you turn up the heat slowly until it’s boiled and never knew when it died.
That’s a lot like life. Some of us put up with things that eventually break something inside us we never realized was broken. Then one day when it’s time to use that personal muscle, it’s not there and we just keep sitting there.
Hope is a dangerous thing, isn’t it? Misused, Hope makes you dissatisfied everyday because you never reach that hoped-for place.
However when we filter it through the Word, remember that Hope is the anchor to the soul, and it’ll ground us when the storms come. And man! do they come!! Hope throws that lifeline over an unseen wall into the realm we cannot see, and we *hope* it catches onto something firm enough to be solid while the hurricane passes. Picture a palm tree with the anchor caught on it. Or maybe a big rock embedded down in the sand, and our anchor catches on it.
Nope. That’s not a good enough picture. We throw our hope over that wall, and Jesus comes up and holds it in His bare hands. And He will not be moved! And He knows just how much slack to let out, and when to pull it tight.
Trust in Him! It’s heard to get healing *during* the storm, but I sure want to be close to Him…anchored to Him, and He can touch that point of need anytime I will allow Him. He knows how, and He knows when.
Day 10 – The 40-Day Heart Challenge
Sometimes when I preach, I’ll read a passage of scripture and NOT describe what it says…NOT explain what it is saying! Why? Because there are verses in the Bible that tell their own story better than anything I can describe.
Look at Deuteronomy 30:3-5 in the Message Translation (Which is a very helpful paraphrase of the scriptures. Don’t be afraid of paraphrases that can help illuminate what is being said. This one is a good one.)
God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. No matter how far away you end up, God, your God will get you out of there and bring you back.
Restoration.
God’s Best.
Seeing the Miraculous.
These are some of the rewards for opening your heart. Do it today!
The 40-Day Heart Challenge – Chapter 9
Before reading this chapter, be sure to check out the video at http://www.sergiodelamora.com/heartrev for Section 3.
Taking risks CAN please God. Perhaps you might go ahead and give that “Will work for food,” guy a couple bucks cash, diluting your doubts with an act of kindness, and remembering that when you give to the poor you are loaning to God. Perhaps you may take him back step by step, starting with a step of accountable counseling. Or maybe you will take a risk of trusting God at His word and giving Him your best rather than leftovers.
Careful here: taking risks CAN displease God! Like if you go ahead and head on over to that party where you know the same old trap you always used to trip into is going to be right there. Or blasting through the red light because nobody’s visible while you pray a quick, “Oh Jesus you know how late I am,” kind of prayer. Or just maybe you’re uncomfortable in your current situation, so you wrap it in a, “God would not want me to suffer,” kind of rationalization and you quit your job and move to Tennessee to pursue your life’s goal of being a professional entertainer, all the while shouting, “If God be for me who can be against me?”
Look, there might be some unknowns that look strange, and God asks you to go there, but there really is a peace that passes understanding, and a confirmation of the Holy Spirit when He wants us to take that flier. But friends, God’s preperation field is in the life of obedient living in His Word. It’s not in the, “Jump off this pinnacle and the angels will catch you,” place in life. Hint: That’s the devil’s playground.
I don’t see anyplace in scripture where God told a follower to plug his ears, shut his eyes, and do the impossible. Nope. He said, “Listen!” He said, “Watch and pray!” And He said, “Follow me!” Anything else is risking something that doesn’t belong to us.
So don’t sit there! Take a risk. If you — yes I said IF — are walking with Jesus, filled with His Spirit, you’re going to have your ears unplugged, your eyes wide open, and take a risk. I agree with the book, “Don’t be afraid to go aout on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.”
Day 8 – The 40-Day Heart Challenge
Asking a parent, “Who is your favorite child?” is about as dumb as it gets, huh? Pastor Karen and I have one daughter and one son. They are as different as you might imagine, and we have dealt with each of them differently throughout their lives because they are two different people. BUT!!! We love them equally and here’s why: We love them infinitely. Pretend on a bad day that I only love my son 90% of infinity. How much is that? Can you measure the amount that it has lessened? No. What if I love my daughter 90% of infinity? Can you measure the amount left over and tell me how much it has decreased?
Of course not. It’s just dumb to say that.
The infinite God has revealed Himself in the Persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I don’t want to allow the world to dictate how I describe my relationship with God. I’ve seen TV shows that make fun of our faith; so have you. I’ve also been IN church services where they are waayyyyy out of line; maybe you have too. But when somebody asks if I’m Spirit-Filled, the answer is Yes and all that goes with that.
The thing is, without the Spirit of God, I’m limiting the power God can show through my life. The other thing is, man (inside and outside the church,) has tried to say, “This is the right way the Spirit of God can move in the life of the believer.”
Really? Jesus spit on clay and rubbed it in a blind man’s eyes. I’ll bet you the “spiritual leaders” of the time didn’t think that was the proper thing to do. Ananias went and prayed for Saul to receive his sight because he heard the Lord tell him to. Again, the “spiritual leaders” may not have liked that one bit.
Perhaps we should listen to the voice of “The Third Person of the Trinity,” and do what He says! It will always, and I mean always, and I mean ALWAYS (because Scripture tells us it will,) point toward Jesus, and line up with the Bible. Period.
So dare! Go! Do! Act! Move! And the Spirit of God will empower you to take you to that HNL!
